It is critical that across our state, we ensure that our local communities have the resources they need to identify and help individuals who are most at risk for suicide. Suicide is the second leading cause of death among individuals between the ages of 25 and 34 and the third leading cause of death for youth and young adults between the ages of 10 and 24. In New York, family and friends lose over 1,700 individuals each year to suicide. This is 1,700 too many.
These statistics are sobering and starkly lend to the understanding that every suicide takes an enormous toll on the families and friends of the individual and has a ripple effect, multiplying the collective toll on our communities.
Ann M. Sullivan, MD
Commissioner
NYS Office of Mental Health
While there is no single solution to preventing suicide, New York State is leading a multi-pronged effort with our Suicide Prevention Center of New York, which is housed at OMH and combines clinical and public health approaches in promoting, coordinating, and strategically advancing suicide prevention measures.
To support this important work, Governor Hochul invested a landmark $1 billion to strengthen New York’s mental health care system in the 2024 State Budget and then $250 million in the 2025 budget. As a result, OMH has been able to expand specialized programs that are designed to reach New Yorkers who are either disconnected from or don’t have access to traditional forms of care.
As part of this effort, we are expanding school-based mental health clinics statewide, bringing community-based care to the place where young people spend most of their time. With an investment of $19 million in this year’s budget, any school in the state that wants to offer mental healthcare can partner with a licensed provider.
New York State is also tripling the number of Certified Community Behavioral Health Clinics, which provide comprehensive services and coordinate care across behavioral, physical health, and social service systems. We are using federal funding to spread the Zero Suicide model – a systemic approach toward integrating suicide prevention in the health care system – among 13 already established clinics, which will help address mental and behavioral health problems among youth.
We are also embracing and expanding programs that are focused on addressing higher suicide rates in specific groups, such as ‘Life is Precious.’ Established in 2008, this program is designed to strengthen protective factors to reduce and ultimately eliminate suicide attempts among Latina adolescents, who have historically higher rates than their peers. Life is Precious started as one center in the Bronx and has now grown to centers in Brooklyn, Queens, and Washington Heights, Manhattan. With funding from OMH, the program expanded in February 2023 to Poughkeepsie and Yonkers. New sites in Amsterdam and Hempstead will open later this year.
Along similar lines, the HAVEN-Connect program with George Washington University’s Department of Psychological Brain Sciences is aimed at enhancing adaptive coping skills and preventing suicide among Black youth, with a focus on helping them build social and emotional connections within their churches. Originally funded by OMH in three churches located in Harlem, Albany, and Rochester, the program is now using an American Foundation for Suicide Prevention Focus Grant to expand into 12 additional sites statewide.
OMH is also sponsoring community-based programs, such as CARES UP, a prevention effort aimed at fostering and supporting the mental health and well-being of military veterans and our first responders. Recipient organizations use the funding to promote resiliency, suicide prevention, and peer work to establish a culture of wellness.
With the first round of funding distributed last year, the initiative provided grants to 15 agencies to enhance their suicide prevention efforts and wellness programs for these individuals who are more often exposed to and often face higher rates of trauma. This year, funding for CARES UP was doubled, allowing the Suicide Prevention Center to expand the program.
It is often unrecognized that individuals in the construction industry have one of the highest rates of suicide in New York. The Suicide Prevention Center has a pilot program aimed at increasing mental wellness among construction industry workers in the Capital Region. Launched in September, the Building Hope Through Action program is aimed at decreasing suicides in this population while integrating mental wellness and suicide prevention into the construction trade’s organizational culture.
This fall, the Suicide Prevention Center also began the ‘MISSION’ project to help at-risk youth and young adults on Staten Island through prevention and clinical intervention. The project will integrate prevention services into local public schools in the borough, Wagner College, and the College of Staten Island, which is part of the City University of New York system, along with four major behavioral health organizations serving the area.
This initiative also strengthens behavioral health support on Staten Island, including training for adults to identify and refer at-risk youth to an integrated system for rapid referrals and providing universal screening and evidence-based interventions in behavioral health settings. Over five years, the project is expected to provide prevention services to more than 30,000 youth and young adults between the ages of 10 and 24 who are at risk for suicide, with an additional 12,000 youth being provided clinical services.
Likewise, we are helping community-based service providers to develop innovative programs that will help reduce suicide risk among youth from historically underserved populations. Funding through the Connecting Youth to Mental Health Supports program is helping to develop programs and suicide prevention strategies among racial and ethnic minority populations and LGBTQ+ groups, including those in rural areas.
We reconvened the New York State Suicide Prevention Task Force with a renewed focus on helping at-risk populations, such as communities of color disproportionally impacted by suicide or suicidal ideation. Established in partnership with the Suicide Prevention Center, the Task Force will build on existing prevention efforts and explore the mental health challenges laid bare during the COVID-19 pandemic.
In addition, we need to assist those New Yorkers on the brink of a behavioral health crisis, which is where the New York State 988 Suicide and Crisis Lifeline comes in. Launched in July 2022, 988 provides an easy-to-remember, three-digit number to access mental health services supported in all 62 counties of the state and provides a connection to trained crisis counselors who can help anyone in crisis or emotional distress. The service is free, confidential, impartial, and can be accessed 24 hours a day and seven days per week by calling or texting “988” or visiting 988.ny.gov.
To help increase public awareness of 988, we launched ‘We Hear You,’ a multi-year public awareness campaign that is aimed at helping more New Yorkers recognize and use this critical service whenever they or someone they know is experiencing a mental health or substance use crisis. You may have recently seen some of our 988 advertisements, which are featured on billboards, on college campuses, during sporting events, on traditional television and radio, and on other digital platforms, such as streaming music and video services.
As part of a new law signed by Governor Kathy Hochul, we will be working with colleges across New York State to ensure information about 988 is printed on all student IDs next year or through other means if their institution doesn’t issue these cards. Colleges must also provide students with resources detailing when to utilize 988.
Suicide is an extremely complex issue, and effective prevention measures require cooperation and coordination among all segments of society. OMH is committed to continuing to expand upon our suicide prevention efforts while providing hope, especially to those who are most at risk.
We are implementing new and innovative programs using best practices that are making a difference. Our goal is to ensure that every New Yorker has access to the resources and mental health services they need whenever they may need them.
Dr. Ann M. Sullivan, MD, is Commissioner of the NYS Office of Mental Health (OMH).
