During New York Governor Kathy Hochul’s State of the State address on Tuesday, she announced plans to include New York’s mental healthcare. 

According to the governor’s office, this multi-year plan aims to “ drastically reduce the number of individuals with unmet mental health needs throughout the state. The multi-year plan includes increasing operational capacity by 1,000 beds for inpatient psychiatric treatment, creating 3,500 units of housing to serve New Yorkers with mental illness, increasing insurance coverage for mental health services, dramatically expanding outpatient services, and creating systemic accountability for hospital admissions and discharges to better address the needs of individuals suffering with mental illness.”

This initiative is anticipated to reflect more than $1 billion in investments. In addition to improving admissions, discharge planning and systemic accountability, the mental health push also includes expanding insurance coverage and expanding mental health services for school-aged children. 

It is encouraging to see attention being given to a system that is overburdened and under-resourced. Especially over the past few years, when the majority of state and federal health resources were aimed at combating the COVID-19 pandemic, mental health issues have seemed to increase. 

It’s even more encouraging that such an effort seems to enjoy bipartisan support. Democratic Assemblywoman Aileen Gunther and State Senator Peter Oberacker have both reacted positively. 

We will rely on them to ensure that much needed state resources make their way to our rural communities and not just the larger cities and wealthier areas of our state. 

With all this in mind, it’s important to remember that mental health begins at a human level. The seemingly small ways in which we help friends and loved ones can make a big difference. It can be as simple as asking how someone is doing and then lending a sympathetic ear.  It can mean talking with children about some of the negative mental impacts of social media. It can mean just reaching out a hand to someone else to reassure them that they’re not alone.