Mental Health, Office of

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Agency Web Site: https://www.omh.ny.gov/

Mission

The Office of Mental Health’s (OMH) mission is to promote the mental health of all New Yorkers, with a particular focus on facilitating hope and recovery for adults and children with serious mental illness or emotional disturbances.

Organization and Staffing

The Office of Mental Health (OMH) has a Central Office in Albany, which oversees State Operated and Local Programs, and the State directly operates 24 psychiatric facilities. The Local Programs are delivered by a combination of local government and community-based service providers; oversight is provided by OMH’s Central Office program and fiscal staff, and by five regional Field Office Directors, who work with local Directors of Community Services, regional program and fiscal staff, and report to the Commissioner. The Executive Budget recommends a workforce of 15,268 FTEs for OMH, reflecting a 273 FTE increase from FY 2024.

Budget Highlights

The Executive Budget provides $5.8 billion in All Funds appropriations, a net decrease of $603.0 million from FY 2024, due to the removal of one-time capital investments included the FY 2024 budget. This decrease is partially offset by additional investments in capital and operating costs to continue the expansion of both State-operated and community-based mental health services across the continuum of care.

The Executive Budget demonstrates Governor Hochul’s ongoing commitment to enhancing and expanding access to mental health services to ensure people receive the support they need in the most appropriate and effective setting. OMH has continued to strengthen its service offerings in recent years by expanding supported housing units throughout the State, providing additional peer support services, and developing new services such as mobile crisis teams. Since FY 2015, the expansion in community-based services has resulted in more than 143,000 previously unserved individuals receiving services.

The Budget advances efforts that improve quality and expand capacity of services in the community. Specifically, the Budget will:

• Increase Support for Existing Residential Programs. The FY 2025 Executive Budget includes $43 million to increase stipends for over 17,000 OMH Supported Housing units to keep pace with rising property costs. This is consistent with the legislation enacted with the FY 2024 budget that extended property pass through provisions to include OMH’s non-licensed residential programs.

• Ensure Access to Care through Workforce Initiatives. The FY 2025 Budget includes five new initiatives to address recruitment and retention in the mental health workforce. These initiatives aim to expand the mental health workforce through job marketing, the creation of a job bank, and the creation of a Behavioral Health Fellowship Program. The initiatives will meet the unique needs of rural communities by providing rural governments with funding to develop targeted workforce investments. OMH also will develop new avenues for credentialing mental health paraprofessionals to bolster recruitment and retention for the community mental health workforce.

• Strengthen the 988 Crisis Hotline through Maternal Mental Health Training. The 988 Crisis Hotline, which was established in FY 2023 to connect individuals in crisis to a variety of community-based crisis intervention programs, will be increased by an additional $100,000 to create a specialized maternal mental health training program for providers. This investment will connect pregnant and postpartum New Yorkers to counselors properly trained to help navigate maternal mental health challenges.

• Expand Maternal Mental Health Training. The FY 2025 Executive Budget includes $1.5 million annually to expand Project TEACH through specialized support for mental health and substance use treatment for individuals during pregnancy and postpartum. This funding will enhance provider education, consultation, and awareness of mental health and substance use resources for therapists; lactation consultants; Women, Infant and Children (WIC) staff; home visiting nurses; and other frontline practitioners working directly with the perinatal population.

• Establish Loan Forgiveness Program for Mental Health Clinicians Serving Children. Similar to the successful OMH loan forgiveness program, which Governor Hochul established in FY 2023, the FY 2025 Budget provides $4 million specifically for licensed mental health clinicians serving children and families in OMH and Office of Children and Family Services licensed settings.

• Youth ACT Teams. The FY 2025 Executive budget includes $9.6 million to create 12 new youth Assertive Community Treatment (ACT) teams. ACT is an evidenced-based practice that offers treatment, rehabilitation, and support services, using a recovery-based approach, to individuals that have been diagnosed with serious mental illness. By FY 2027, the statewide total will increase from 30 to 42 specialized teams for children and youth. These additional youth teams will help address the needs of children who are at risk of needing or returning home from high end services.

• Peer-to-Peer Youth Programs. The FY 2025 Executive Budget continues the State’s commitment to peer-driven recovery models by expanding the reach of youth-driven and youth-centered programs. An annual investment of $2 million will expand peer-to-peer supports, including Teen Mental Health First Aid and safe spaces outside of the school and home where youth can meet with peers, provide support to each other, and utilize established connections to professionals and trained adults to better address mental health and wellness challenges.

• Partial Hospitalization Program (PHP). Governor Hochul will expand access to high intensity services through $2.8 million invested annually to enhance PHP children’s service rates by 25 percent and develop several new PHP programs.

• Specialized Children's Community Residence Programming. The FY 2025 Executive Budget bolsters mental health services for children and families by investing $1 million annually to increase training and specialized programs focusing on children with welfare system involvement. Funding will support two programs in Children's Community Residences in each OMH region to support reunification with families and build networks to mental health services.

• Provide Social Media Resources for Youth and Caregivers. The Office of Mental Health will develop materials to educate caregivers on the impacts of social media on youths and to provide methods to monitor social media usage to reduce negative effects. This will help ensure a culture of digital safety in schools.

• Improve Mental Health Admission and Discharge Decisions by Hospitals. The FY 2025 Executive Budget includes $7 million in funding to expand surveillance and regulatory compliance activities within OMH licensed and unlicensed program settings, including hospital inpatient programs and Comprehensive Psychiatric Emergency Programs (CPEPs). OMH and DOH will also finalize regulations to codify the hospitals' admission and discharge requirements for patients with behavioral health conditions.

• Expand Inpatient Bed Capacity. The FY 2025 Executive Budget includes funding to open another 125 State-operated inpatient psychiatric beds, including 15 for children and adolescents, 85 for adults, and 25 forensic; and 75 Transition to Home Unit (THU) beds in one State-operated and two community-based facilities. This additional capacity will help meet the increased need for mental health services across the State.

• Support Individuals with Mental Illness and Involved in the Criminal Justice System. The Budget provides several additional supports for people with mental illness who are involved in the criminal justice system, including establishing a team within OMH that will work with mental health courts and providers to ensure individuals are connected to the services they need. The budget also includes $2.8 million to provide housing and supports to individuals with mental illness experiencing homelessness and/or involved in the criminal justice system, and $9.6 million to enhance and expand specialized Forensic Assertive Community Treatment (FACT) teams to support individuals with serious mental illness in the community.

• Crisis Intervention Team (CIT) Training. The FY 2025 Executive Budget includes $187,000 in funding to expand CIT Training. This will promote better outcomes when law enforcement responds to individuals with acute mental health needs, including decreasing the number of arrests and increasing connections to appropriate mental health services.

For more information on this agency's budget recommendations located in the Executive Budget Briefing Book, click on the following link:

Briefing Book – Mental Hygiene (PDF)

Program Highlights

New York State has a large, multi-faceted, public mental health system that serves more than 900,000 individuals each year. OMH operates psychiatric centers across the State, and regulates, certifies, and oversees more than 4,500 programs, which are operated by local governments and not-for-profit agencies. These programs fall into four major categories:

• State Operated Services. OMH operates two world-renowned Research Institutes and 22 psychiatric centers that provide more than 3,340 inpatient beds for Adult, Children and Youth, and Forensic populations. The agency also runs over 80 outpatient clinics, roughly 1,200 residential beds, and a range of outpatient programs in State prison settings. As part of their ongoing transformation efforts, OMH continues to transition individuals with mental illness to more integrated community-based settings.

• Adult Residential Programs. For individuals with mental illness, safe and affordable housing is an essential element of recovery. OMH oversees a large array of adult housing resources and residential habilitation programs in New York State, including congregate treatment, licensed apartments, single room residences, and supported housing. Each residential setting is designed to provide the supports and services necessary for individuals to live in the least restrictive setting possible.

• Adult Non-Residential Programs. OMH contracts with local governments and not-for-profit agencies to provide community-based services and supports for individuals with mental illness. The agency supports outpatient programs, including clinic treatment, crisis intervention, emergency services, advocacy and support, and other community services that promote recovery.

• Children and Youth Programs. OMH oversees a variety of programs to support children and youth, and their families, including inpatient programs, residential treatment facilities, and community-based services and supports.

Note: Most recent estimates as of 01/16/2024