Source: US State of New York
Earlier today, Governor Kathy Hochul participated in a fireside chat at The Project Healthy Minds World Mental Health Day Festival. World Mental Health Day was established on October 10, 1992 by the World Federation for Mental Health. Since then, it has been observed every year with the aim of raising awareness in the global community about critical mental health agendas through collaboration with various partners to take action and create lasting change.
VIDEO of the event is available on YouTube here and available in TV quality (h.264, mp4) format here.
AUDIO of the Governor’s remarks is available here.
PHOTOS of the event are available on the Governor’s Flickr page.
A rush transcript of the Governor’s remarks is available below:
Linsey Davis, ABC News: Good morning, everyone. Good morning, and thank you so much for joining us on this World Mental Health Day. We are excited to have this conversation with regard to mental health — America’s fraying social fabric — which is such a necessary and worthwhile conversation to have. And we are so glad to have with us Kathy Hochul, the 57th Governor of New York — first female Governor of New York.
Governor Hochul: Yes. Thank you, everybody.
Linsey Davis, ABC News: And not only do we have in her an advocate when it comes to mental health reform, but also with abortion rights and gun safety and beyond. But in particular, today we’re going to really talk about the status of mental health when it comes to our youth both in the State of New York and beyond, because a number of the initiatives that you’ve actually started are really a model that the rest of the country is looking at and implementing. And so, we just thank you so much for taking the time to have this really critical and necessary conversation.
You know, it’s been said that if you’re not afraid, you’re not paying attention. And I think that is certainly true of these times when we think about — whether it’s natural disasters or the global conflict in Ukraine or Israel, and the slightly contentious election for President that we’re in the midst of — but all of these have ramifications when it comes to our young people. And I want to get to that larger crisis that’s taking place, but first I want to talk about — further compounding all of this — is that there are still lingering effects from COVID-19.
Governor Hochul: That’s exactly right. I would put that at the top of the list of what maybe precipitated this unusual time in our history where we’re finding that childhood is no longer a time of joy. It is enormously stressful. And to see kids in middle school and high school in particular that are really devolving into a dark place — and this is not from me reading books. This is from me spending two years on the road convening young people in libraries and classrooms and different community centers all over the State, and asking them what’s going on. Why are these statistics that we’re seeing about — particularly young women contemplating suicide and actually following through with it — happening? The depression, the anxiety — all these parallel factors are going on at a time when people are not recovered from the pandemic.
And I say that to adults and they don’t even think about it anymore because their resiliency was baked into them. As adults, you’ve been through a lot. When you are a 12-year-old or a 16-year-old, you don’t have those natural coping skills. And those kids today are still talking about the pandemic that we have put in the rear view mirror.
But parallel with that was the rise in social media algorithms that are addictive. So, this was the imperfect storm that — the collision of which — has affected the mental health of our kids, and we have to do something about it because we’re the adults in the room, we’re the adults in their lives and they’re asking us, as one young woman said to me, “You have to save us from ourselves. We cannot put down the phones, we cannot break the addiction.” And I have to do something. I’m the first woman governor, but also I’m the first mom governor whose kids have gone through this, and I see so many family members and so, I applaud you. And also Project Healthy Mind for putting a spotlight on something that four or five years ago I don’t think there would have been as much interest in, but now even the Surgeon General has declared this a crisis. And we, in leadership positions, have no option but to act, and I’ve been doing this for years.
Linsey Davis, ABC News: And when you talk about the stress, anxiety, uncertainty in particular that kids are feeling — give us an idea of some of the initiatives, some of the specific steps that your administration is taking.
Governor Hochul: Well, number one, when I first became governor three years ago, I knew that there’s still a stigma about seeking help. I mean, I’ve been working on this in the addictive space — opioid addiction — and so people don’t want to get help. Mental health, it seems like you’re admitting a weakness if you seek help. I’m glad to see there’s been an evolution where more people are open about it and talking about it on social media platforms and podcasts, and programs like this that allow people to feel more comfortable with the fact that we’re all imperfect. Sometimes we need help at different points in our lives. But when it came down to what I could do as governor — $1 billion I put on the table. I said, “This means we’re serious.” The whole array of services, whether it’s in schools — which I think is one of the most important places [for there to be] mental health services and clinics inside our schools — to help kids who are starting to show signs of fraying from the stress. If we help them now, we don’t have to commit them to a lifetime of needing services and help later. So, it’s right in the classroom, all the way to dealing with the challenge of homelessness and mental health challenges on our subways — we have embedded teams that are professionals, they’re caring, I’ve met with them so many times, I’ve been there with them — they meet individuals who others may walk by and be afraid of and say, “You know, that person could do harm to myself or my baby in the stroller. I’m a senior citizen going to a doctor’s appointment.” There’s a fear that’s embedded in all of us when you see something that is unknown to you.
So, let’s get people help. They do not deserve to live on the subways and in our streets; we get them supportive housing so there’s money involved in that as well; opening up more mental health beds.
During the pandemic — people don’t know this — thousands of beds dedicated for providing mental health services in our hospitals were converted to COVID beds. And then afterward I said, “Well, why aren’t they all back online? I’m tracking the numbers. Why do we have such a shortage in places like New York City? Why is there a shortage of hospital beds available to treat people who need these services?” Well, it turns out that the reimbursement rates were higher for a hospital, more profit could be made if you kept them as non-psychiatric beds because those costs are higher.
So I said, “That’s not okay.” I closed the gap so they can make the money they need to make on Medicaid provided beds, so that was taken care of. And also making those — bringing them back online. So it’s everything from the classroom to reducing the stigma in countless ways, programs like this, money for programming and supportive services.
Everything we can think of, we’re trying to do. But my job is to make sure we don’t start another whole generation of young people who are held captive to these algorithms. We have nation leading legislation, and I’ll tell you, taking on the tech companies is not the easiest thing in life to do, but we forced them to adhere to what we’re saying in New York.
In New York State, as a result of laws that I enacted just a few months ago and with the support of Common Sense Media and other great organizations and our advocates, no longer can social media companies unsolicited — and bombard young people with addictive algorithms without them asking for it. Their parents have to be okay with that. I don’t think too many parents are going to say that’s okay.
They also cannot send notifications all night long to our kids who need a good night’s sleep. They’re exhausted. You don’t function at a high level as an adult, but certainly not a young person supposed to sit for eight hours a day and be paying attention when you haven’t slept at night because you cannot put down that addictive feature, which is your phone.
And so that’s where we are now, and again, talking about what’s happening in schools. Stood up to the social media companies. We are a tech society. We are a tech state. We’re a tech city. I welcome the tech companies. This is not an ‘us against them,’ it is saying, “You know better. You are all executives who probably have children. Do you really want your kids to be seeing these dark images and being drawn into places?”
You put in the word ‘suicide,’ it’s not teaching you how to get help and supportive and uplifting messages to help you heal, it teaches you how to commit suicide. That’s what I’m talking about. There are messages that are not appropriate for young people.
They can, on their own, go to social media sites, but don’t be taking personal information you have collected about a child that you have gathered, and now use that to hold them captive. That’s the cycle we’re going to break here in the State of New York, and I hope every other state follows suit.
Linsey Davis, ABC News: And these are, as you’ve said — yes, there’s applause there — first in the nation social media laws that you are taking to protect our children. But beyond that, you just finished a listening tour with regard to — I guess, that has informed some of your decisions to try to have this initiative to ban cell phones in schools. I’m curious what made you decide, “You know what, we have to do this,” and what has been the reaction, the feedback that you’ve been getting?
Governor Hochul: Great question. Again, I wanted to hear from parents, teachers, students themselves, administrators, school boards, principals, everybody. So, these are the people I’ve been gathering.
And what I have universally heard is that school districts and school boards don’t want to be the heavies. They know this should happen, and those who are courageous enough to go forward already, and some school districts have, I know Lackawanna in Western New York, where I was born in the City of Lackawanna, they’ve done it; there’s a number in Westchester; Schoharie County was the first that I could think of that had a widespread unveiling of this. They said it was hard at first, and parents were resistant. Teachers didn’t know what would happen, they didn’t want to be the cell phone police, they wanted to just teach. But they are the happiest school district in our state — I’m going to go out on a limb here. Because the school superintendent said to me, “We heard something we haven’t heard in years, children’s voices – children’s voices at lunch, physical education, in the hallways.”
Linsey Davis, ABC News: They’re actually interacting with each other.
Governor Hochul: They’re talking, they’re sometimes yelling at each other. Sometimes there’s things — he says, “They’re not always friendly.” But he says, “And they’re making eye contact with each other.” I mean, think about what happens when you spend your day like this. You lose those human interaction skills that we expect young people to graduate from school having developed. And what happens to an 18-year-old, who does not have that because we’ve allowed this phenomenon and this distraction all day long. And they don’t develop that. When they go to a workplace, they want to get a job at Hudson Yards and be part of a team and, and the creative collisions that come up with the brilliant ideas that New York City is known for. It’s not going to happen because we’ve not allowed them to emerge as fully functioning adults by letting this distraction – And teachers, I’ll tell you, when I say distraction — 74 percent of teachers in the United States of America say this is such a distraction they want them gone because they’re in competition. One teacher said, “I don’t even want to teach anymore. I’m in competition with this cell phone, and they’re not looking at me, they’re not paying attention. I’m trying to create a bond and a relationship with them. And I, by the end of this school year, I’ve thrown in the towel, I can’t do this anymore.” So the teachers want it. School districts want me to be the heavy. I said, “I get blamed for everything anyhow, just add it to the list, right?” It’s like, “I can take it, don’t worry about me.” So I said, “I’ll be the heavy because this is right.”
The parents are the ones you worry about, right? And I’m a mom. My kids were in middle school during Columbine. So that shapes how you feel, that insecurity when the most, you know, your most precious person in the world to you is your child going off to kindergarten. And again, I still sometimes think about how I cried for days when my kid’s going off to kindergarten. Then they go off to college, it’s like, bye, give us a call once in a while.
So, but, it’s hard. And when you see this — the shootings, the mass shootings, we did an event with Gabby Giffords yesterday on gun violence, and thank you for raising that. We have the toughest gun laws in the country, by the way, and the lowest — third lowest homicide rate by the — third lowest in the nation. So that’s another focus, but it ties into anxiety that parents have and they feel now that because they have to be connected with their kids all day long and, and especially if there’s a crisis on the school grounds. There’s the worst nightmare of all: a school shooter on the loose near your child. I also was thinking, well, maybe this is going be too hard for parents because, you know, it’s a lot to ask and they’re going to be worried.
When I talk to law enforcement, and they said to me, “Tell the parents and we’ll tell them — if there is an active shooter on the grounds, in the building — the last thing you want your child to be doing is looking for their cell phone, starting to record things, talking to their friends, calling their parents.” He said, “They need to be focused on the adult in the room who will lead them to safety.” And that was my aha moment. I said, “You’re right. Parents need to know that.” So, there’s that safety issue, but also, my kids are adults now. They didn’t have cellphones in school. They’re — it did not happen during their era. Our job is not to raise kids. Our job is to raise adults. Fully functioning adults who know how to interact with others, who are not so attached to their parents every hour of the day throughout school. At some point, you do have to cut the cord. The apron strings as they used to say. No one knows what an apron is anymore, so I don’t say that. I had to make one at Home Ec because they wouldn’t teach us real skills, okay? I wanted to work on cars, with the guys in the shop, but they didn’t let us, okay? So, you have to cut the ties at some point.
And one first grade teacher said to me, and I love talking to teachers, she says, “I’m fed up with the fact that every child, every six-year-old in my first grade class, has a smartwatch on that the parents send so they can be in touch with their child throughout the day, and they’re like, ‘Oh, the teacher was mean to me, Mommy.’”
They said they’re getting phone calls from parents: “‘I just got sent to the office.’ Why are you sending my little girl to the office?” So, it’s not functioning. And so, parents, I know it’s hard because you need to go back to a time when you grew up, your parents did not keep track of you all day long. You did not have them as a crutch. And my God, if you forgot your lunch, two options: Borrow one of your friends, see if you can share a sandwich, or the next day, don’t forget. And you won’t forget the next day, right? Oh, because I hear that. “What if they forget their lunch? What if they have to make their after school plans?” Well, we’ll give them the phone back after school and maybe they’ll learn the skill of pre-planning their day. So, I want them to learn coping skills, resiliency and emerge as part of our New York State workforce — fully functioning — and we are the barriers because we’re not being the heavies and saying no, and that’s the path I’m on. I have to work with our Legislature. I have to do a lot more education on this because it’s a change. But, none of us had it and we turned out okay, right?
Linsey Davis, ABC News: I want to switch gears here for a minute because we are talking about — obviously, in the news — the devastation from Hurricane Milton, and when it comes to national disaster relief, quite often we’re talking about money to build homes and jobs back again, food and all of that. But, when it comes to mental health assistance, what do you think the role of the state and federal government is at that point?
Governor Hochul: They’re absolutely right about the devastation — so many New Yorkers have a connection to Florida, right? My father’s home, my sister’s home, my brother’s home and my aunt’s home — all in St. Petersburg, heavily damaged. My aunt’s home was already demolished two weeks ago. So, we have connections that are tighter than most other states, so I immediately sent our resources. I said, “Tell the governor we’re on our way.” And, we sent helicopters, search and rescue — 65 people are down there now, we’ll send more.
So, there’s that side of it, but the trauma inflicted on a community after an event like this is something we cannot overlook. This is like a community that has gone through a mass shooting. I refer back to Buffalo again. We had to provide mental health services to the survivors of the Tops shooting when ten people were gunned down and slaughtered in a grocery store in 2022 because of the color of their skin, and that’s what that white supremacist 18-year-old said he was going to do.
That community is trying to heal, but you need to provide services so we went in, our mental health teams went in to help them heal. The same thing should happen in communities where you see these people sobbing, standing their whole — everything they’ve built their whole lives, the baby pictures are in a puddle on the street and their wedding album and their clothes.
It is so hard to see your whole life wiped away, and if we don’t think that has an effect on your mental health and your sense of security forever, then we are wrong. So, we need to be more intentional and provide resources to local social service agencies and say, “Once the storm is cleaned up, don’t assume their lives are cleaned up — that they’re back to normal.” And so, being sensitive to that in government is the smart way to do it. These people need our help and that’s what government is there to do.
Linsey Davis, ABC News: And we’re just about out of time, but I do want to ask one last question — which I think is a large overarching issue — which is, how do you destigmatize the idea of mental health? Because, a lot of people still — there is a fear or an embarrassment that I need a little help. I need to talk to somebody about this.
Governor Hochul: That’s when you get the validators that people trust. It’s the hip hop artists, it’s the athletes, it’s the people that, people are watching their — I watch “Only Murders in the Building.” I mean, is that building actually here? I can’t find it. I keep walking around.
Linsey Davis, ABC News: I think it’s on the Upper West Side.
Governor Hochul: Okay, I keep walking around trying to find it. I walk around the City all the time. No one knows it’s me, because I can put on a baseball hat and jeans and no one knows who I am, so it’s great. So, I’m always walking around doing things.
But, more people who do that — I think because we are a society that’s impacted by influencers— Taylor Swift talks about it. I think that’s an important part of it because it’s really hard to break out of that, especially for men, I believe. But I’m really proud of even family members who say, “I have my weekly check in telehealth services with my therapist.” like, thank you. That’s smart, and tell your other friends you’re doing that.
And I do think that the telehealth services help destigmatize. You don’t have to get up and go into an office and sit in a waiting room, and you might know somebody and you’re all kind of like — I think that’s a brilliant innovation that creates accessibility, even on your cell phone. I’ve got my appointment, I can talk to somebody.
So, it has gotten much easier and stigma is a powerful negative force on people who should be seeking help. Whether it’s from fentanyl addiction, or opioid addiction. I did commercials on this when I was Lieutenant Governor, trying to destigmatize getting help for those addictions and services that are provided.
Same thing with mental health. So, there’s not one answer, but forums like this, sharing information — I just talked about mental health on a podcast not long ago, and it’s getting out there. So, I will do my role. Anything I can do in state government, you know. Whether it’s public awareness campaigns, we always are doing this, but I’m open to ideas. I really am.
We don’t have all the answers, and I want to be helpful. I want to be not just investing, the government investing the most money ever, but having the best results. And it is my state where people dealt with the epicenter of the pandemic, we have to recognize that.
And we’re the ones who are very anxious about crime. I can tell everybody in the whole City that the crime rates, the murder rate in New York City is almost as low as it was in the 1960s. We have plummeted. Shootings are way down — but I can’t tell you to feel good about that. And that’s what we wrestle with. I want to change the psychology around this and it’s hard, but we have to take it on and say, “I want people to feel good about the City.” Not just, “I’m supposed to feel better because the numbers are down.” I don’t expect that. What I want to do is make people feel that they’re safer, that their kids are going to be okay. And just try to remove some of the stress that is part of everyday life here, because this is an extraordinary place.
And the benefits so outweigh the negative, and we have to keep focusing on the positive — because life is good. And people sometimes just need a little bit of help, and pulling them upwards and letting them grow. Letting them just really flourish, you know? And mental health is such an important part, it’s the foundation of everything. It’s everything.
Linsey Davis, ABC News: Well, I think that forums like this, conversations like this, are so helpful. And step one, two three, right? Just to talk about it.
And we appreciate so much you taking this time — your leadership and the initiatives that you have in order to try to make things better in particular, not just for us, but for our youth. And by extension of our youth, for all of us as the adults. So, we thank you so much. And we thank all of you for being such very intensive listeners today.
And we do want to remind everybody here — I say it to you as I say it to myself as well, that we have to keep mental health top of mind, right? That is just as important as any other aspect of our wellness.
And so, again, on this mental health day. We just thank you all so much for taking the time to be together.
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