New York State Announces Effort to Bolster New York State’s Youth and Family Peer Advocate Workforce
More Than $2.7 Million Awarded to Not-for-Profit Community-Based Organizations to Recruit Advocates with Lived Behavioral Health Experience
The New York State Office of Mental Health today announced that 10 community-based organizations have launched a state-funded effort to expand New York State’s youth and family peer advocate workforce and address existing shortages. With individual one-time grants of $275,000, these not-for-profit organizations are now beginning outreach efforts to identify, train and credential individuals with lived experience or family caregivers for those living with mental illness or behavioral health issues to become youth and family peer advocates.
“Family and youth advocates can relate to the emotional struggle so many New Yorkers experience as they begin the path to recovery and are in a unique position to help,” Office of Mental Health Commissioner Dr. Ann Sullivan said. “Recruiting and training them will help us fill an increasing need so many service providers are experiencing across the state. With this funding, these community-based organizations will aid our efforts to ensure everyone in our state has access to mental health care that is sensitive to their needs.”
This spring, OMH provided awards to community-based organizations in five distinct regions of the state, including three in the New York City area, and seven elsewhere in the state. They include:
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Interborough Developmental, serving Brooklyn
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Pesach Tikvah Hope Development, Inc., serving Staten Island
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Brooklyn Bureau of Community Services, serving Queens
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MHA of Erie County, serving Erie Niagara, Genesee, and Orleans counties
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Housing Options Made Easy, Inc., serving Erie and Cattaraugus, and Chautauqua counties
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MHA of Rochester/Monroe County, serving Monroe, Livingston, and Ontario counties
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Central Nassau Guidance and Counseling, serving Nassau and Suffolk counties
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Integrated Community Alternatives, serving Oneida, Herkimer, Fulton, Montgomery, and Madison counties
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Vanderheyden Hall Inc., serving Albany, Rensselaer, Schenectady, Warren, and Washington counties
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Mental Health America of Dutchess County, serving Dutchess, Orange, Putnam, Rockland, Sullivan, and Ulster counties
These organizations will provide stipends at aimed incentivizing youth and family peer advocates to participate in the credentialing process and as an employment bonus once they are credentialed and providing services. Each provider is required to employ or place 15 youth or family peer advocates into the workforce, meaning the program will help attract at least 150 individuals into this emerging field.
By investing in peer advocates, the state can expand this workforce and help address ongoing shortages. Through these grants, not-for-profit community-based organizations will work within their region to establish collaborative partnerships, such as with social and membership clubs, places of worship, and other local agencies, which have connections within populations that are historically underserved.
Peer advocates use personal experience to provide direct support services to help individuals in their recovery and can also be key stakeholders in shaping program development. These Credentialed peers are critical to the efforts to expand New York State’s continuum of mental health services, including as a component in residential, inpatient, and outpatient and community-based crisis services.
Credentialed youth peer advocates are between 18 and 30 years old, with a self-identified first-hand experience with emotional or behavioral challenges, or co-occurring disorders. Credentialed family peer advocates are those who self-identify as having lived experience as a parent or primary caregiver who has navigated the mental health care system on behalf of a child with social, emotional, developmental, or behavioral healthcare needs.
Under Governor Kathy Hochul’s leadership, New York State has prioritized the growth and development of the behavioral health workforce. She helped establish the Community Mental Health Loan Repayment Program, which has allocated more than $41 million to help roughly 1,000 workers –including psychiatrists, nurse practitioners and other licensed professionals –repay college loans, provided they agree to work in local mental health programs in New York State for three years.
This program was recently expanded to include a round of funding dedicated to mental health practitioners serving children and adolescents in programs under OMH or the Office of Children and Family Services statewide. This round is expected to reach more than 200 additional professionals dedicated to youth mental health services.
OMH also participates in the state Department of Labor’s Registered Apprenticeship Program in partnership with the State Education Department. Registered apprenticeship features standardized training aligned to real-time industry need, regulated by rules at both the state and federal level and includes a nationally recognized and portable credential upon completion.
The agency continues to grow its partnership with State University of New York and City University of New York campuses, to increase workforce diversity. Through this partnership, SUNY and CUNY are providing funding to support tuition assistance, paid internships, and direct stipends for minority and multilingual students entering or enrolled in mental health degree programs.
OMH is also creating a paraprofessional credential for a mental health support specialist in New York State. The agency is now developing the core competencies and training for this credential.
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