NEW YORK CITY
New York City is partnering with the National Council for Behavioral Health to bring ThriveNYC, a public initiative launched in November 2015, to communities in the city. Its goal is to make mental health first aid as ubiquitous as regular first aid, such as CPR.
One in every four Americans experiences mental illness. Depression, the most ubiquitous, is the number one cause of suicide in the U. S. at more than 40,000 a year.
The Department of Health and Mental Hygiene, will provide $ 850 million in funding for mental health programs over the next four years. A key investment will be providing mental health first aid training to 250,000 people, beginning with first responders like police officers and firefighters and then expanding to include members of the community. Proponents of the program believe it will allow trained bystanders to help prevent deaths, assess harmful situations, and seek appropriate medical treatment for people in crisis.
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