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���������� Note: ���������� and our colleagues are holding an in person forum tomorrow at the NYS Legislative Office Building to urge NYS Governor Hochul to provide desperately needed funding for community mental health and addiction recovery services in the 2022-2 state budget that her Administration will be releasing in January. See below for details. Also…

Join us next week for our follow up December 21 Virtual Rally!
Help us make some noise as we call for a 5.4% COLA and $500 million investment
for workforce, services, and support.
Tag a friend to attend the virtual rally together. #OurShareforCare #FundBehavioralHealth
Register here:
Thank you!!

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE                               Contact: Susan Bardack

518.867.7940
susan@buzzmediasolutions.com

Mental Health and Substance Use Disorder Advocates Host Forum at LOB
to Call for Immediate Funding in the Executive Budget
Behavioral Health Leaders Highlight Industry Crisis Worsened by Pandemic

(Albany, NY) – A group of 12 statewide and regional membership associations working to achieve common goals within ����������’s public mental hygiene system hosted an educational forum on Thursday, December 16, 2021 at 10:30 a.m., to highlight the decades long failure by ���������� State to invest in the community-based mental health and substance use disorder/addiction systems of care. This neglect has led to debilitating workforce shortages across the behavioral health service delivery system and has resulted in reduced access to care at precisely the moment when demand for mental health and substance use prevention, treatment and recovery services has never been higher. The group will call upon Governor Kathy Hochul to include a 5.4% Cost of Living Adjustment (COLA) and $500 million investment for workforce, service, and support in her SFY 2022 -23 Executive Budget proposal.

“We are only asking for what we are already owed,” said a spokesperson for the organizations. “Although community behavioral health agencies have been promised a yearly cost-of-living adjustment, it’s only been appropriated three times in the last 15 years. Our workforce is suffering, our facilities are suffering, and worst of all, ����������ers are suffering.”

Leaders representing stakeholders from across the state were joined by the ����������ers who are most affected by ����������’s failure to invest in the state’s mental health and substance use disorder safety net including family members, peer representatives, individuals in recovery, current staff members, and CEOs to discuss current conditions around the state. This included the negative impacts being felt in local communities due to their inability to recruit and retain staff, to meet access demands for children and adults, and to identify safe and affordable housing for those who need permanent housing, etc.

The state’s failure to invest in these services has driven away the workforce due to unacceptably low wages and impossibly high caseloads, leading to burnout. The tireless, talented, dedicated, and diverse workforce and the community agencies at which they work are no longer able to address the ever-worsening public health crises connected with the opioid epidemic, mental health housing, and increased rates of suicide in certain populations combined with the devastating impact of the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic.

In addition to the forum, a virtual rally will be held on December 21, 2021, at 11:00am to continue to bring attention to this crisis.

If you would like to learn more about this pressing issue and attend the rally, please contact Susan Bardack at susan@buzzmediasolutions.com or 518.867.7940.

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About Behavioral Health Advocates|
Behavioral Health Advocates is a group of 12 organizations that have come together to achieve common goals within the Behavioral Health industry. BHA came together about a year ago, as an unformalized coalition, and they represent providers, adults, children, and families throughout ���������� state.

The 12 organizations that comprise BHA are:

• Association for Community Living

• Coalition of Medication-Assisted Treatment Providers and Advocates of ���������� State

• Families Together in ���������� State

• Mental Health Association in ���������� State

• National Alliance on Mental Illness ���������� State (NAMI)

• ���������� Association of Alcoholism and Substance Abuse Providers, Inc. (ASAP)

• ���������� State Care Management Coalition

• ���������� State Coalition for Children’s Behavioral Health

• ���������� State Council for Community Behavioral Health Care

• ���������� Association of Psychiatric Rehabilitation Services

• Supportive Housing Network of ����������

• The Coalition for Behavioral Health