Governor Hochul: "...Having the opportunity to have culturally sensitive and relevant professionals makes all the difference in the world, because they're more likely to open up, not just for mental health services, but all services if they're being treated by someone who had a similar life experience. You know, maybe they're new Americans, their parents were new Americans, they're still finding their way in this country, or those who just want to know someone speaks the language. How big is that?"

Hochul: "And we, as the adults and the policymakers and those who've committed their lives to public service - whether it's a doctor or a or member of the community who stepped up in places like this great organization here - we're all part of this. We're part of the solution. But as our Second Gentleman has said, tackling our nation's mental health crisis starts by talking about it."

Earlier today, Governor Kathy Hochul joined Second Gentleman Douglas Emhoff and Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra for a roundtable with Latino community leaders to discuss equity in mental and behavioral health access.

VIDEO of the event is available on YouTube here

A rush transcript of the Governor's remarks is available below:

Dr. Ramon, you're also the heart of this community, and I want to thank you for the passion that you've brought to your life's calling, which is to help people in communities that for far too long were ignored, forgotten, overlooked, and by what you've done with SOMOS and teaming up with Henry Muñoz and putting a spotlight on the needs of communities like this.

And I saw you in action, you and Dr.Chen, and hundreds of doctors and nurses all over this city as you were literally saving lives - the testing sites, the vaccination sites. So, I was in awe you back then, but my esteem for you continues to grow as you're taking on new challenges, letting us have this conversation here to put a spotlight on mental health.

Something that for far too long was never discussed in open - the stigma, particularly in Latino communities, you know, because people are proud, they're strong, they don't want to be asking for help. But with your credibility in this community, you've changed that dynamic. And for that, I applaud you, Dr. Ramon. Thank you for all you've done.

It is incredible to have the Secretary here as well. We're former colleagues in Washington. He was rising up in leadership. I was a rookie member of Congress, but he still talked to me. He was a nice guy, a good person. And we developed a friendship that I thank him for his spotlight on these issues, but also what he has done for our country, and particularly for the State of New York.

So, let's give another round of applause to Secretary Xavier Becerra. And I have a tremendous fondness for the Second Gentleman. I know the trials and tribulations of being that spouse, but to use his voice as he is able to - have the platform and not just to go about his way, but to say, I have a voice that people will listen to when I show up as he does today.

It's a gathering and people want to hear what he has to say because he's a very important voice in our nation, and I thank him. We are huge fans of Vice President Kamala Harris here in New York State. She's a dear friend. We love her, and - as you do. And also, the Biden-Harris team is always welcome here in our state. And thank you for lending your credibility to this.

This is something that's been important to me for a long time. I gathered here a number of years ago at Comunilife. We had a roundtable with young teenage girls, Latinas. And we talked about why the suicide rate is so high among these - literally children.

They're just teenagers - 13, 14, 15. And a lot of it came from cultural stress that they're under. Their parents come from another country where there's maybe more religious restrictions and attire restrictions and all these things that made these girls feel different when they showed up in their own high schools or middle schools. And teenage girls, it's hard enough. I was one. I raised one. I understand the psychology of teenage girls, but in this community, it's particularly hard.

And that's why having the opportunity to have culturally sensitive and relevant professionals makes all the difference in the world, because they're more likely to open up, not just for mental health services, but all services if they're being treated by someone who had a similar life experience. You know, maybe they're new Americans, their parents were new Americans, they're still finding their way in this country, or those who just want to know someone speaks the language. How big is that? You want to have someone understand what you're trying to describe to them.

And so, all these factors, they don't rise to the top always, but we need to talk about them. And part of my priority has been to find ways to support more people of color becoming health care professionals. We, literally in November, announced that we're going to forgive the loans of psychiatrists who studied, who are in the communities on the front lines, psychiatrists from Black and Brown communities, up to $120,000 for psychiatrists and $30,000 for nurses. That's how we're helping them find their way to these streets and these communities, and not abandon, perhaps, where they came from because there are more lucrative jobs, so they have to figure out a way to pay their loans.

We also are fully funding 1,000 scholarships for nurses every year. We started last year because our health care workforce was decimated by the pandemic. So many people put their lives on the line and were under siege, under stress, and it's unbearable what they had to endure. And some left, some were sick, some literally passed away from contracting COVID on the job. So we have a severe shortage.

And the way we need to approach this is to make sure that this is an opportunity for us as a state to literally fund some of these ways to get them the education and get them on the path so they can someday work for places like SOMOS. So we are very intentional about this - and the whole mental health crisis overall.

I think psychologists someday will be studying what happened to the human condition during these two years of isolation and disruption. We know the effects on teenagers. We know that they've not recovered from this when they had two years, sometimes alone, fixated on the only connection they had, which is their social media network, and not getting a true learning environment and nurturing environment - an environment where there's adults keeping an eye on them.

So we're suffering the consequences. They're suffering the consequences, which is why I have put forth the largest investment in New York State's history to finally take mental health out of the shadows and put $1 billion behind it. And I'm hopeful to get that in my budget in the next couple of weeks.

And we're just getting started. We truly are. And we're going to be conducting roundtables across the state. I'll be making an announcement on this, how we're going to be gathering people. It's also about dealing with people who need treatment. We'll be proposing to have 1,000 new mental health beds, 3,500 units of supportive housing because what has happened before - someone is on the streets, they're taken to an emergency room. There's not enough room, so they send them back or they give 24 hours of care, and there's no place to discharge them to with long-term services that are going to actually change their lives because otherwise they are right back on the street. And they're not getting the support they need.

So, we are focused on the continuum of care, the lifetime of care, but also in our schools, making sure that with the extraordinary amount of money that we are funding schools with this year - record amount - that the schools take part of that money and literally have health care professionals in the schools so we can identify the signs, get treatment, work through the challenges of our young people so they don't need a lifetime of mental health services because we catch it early.

These are the strategies we're employing at the state level. We have many, many more, but I want to hear from the panelists. But I am committed to this heart and soul. I'm committed. Every single family in the State of New York has had some family member who has either succumb to drug overdose, as I have, or someone who's still dealing with mental health and teenagers who are feeling that sense of isolation, and how are they ever going to get through this?

And we, as the adults and the policymakers and those who've committed their lives to public service - whether it's a doctor or a or member of the community who stepped up in places like this great organization here - we're all part of this. We're part of the solution. But as our Second Gentleman has said, tackling our nation's mental health crisis starts by talking about it.

And I want to thank him once again for bringing his voice to this conversation. And let me turn it over to our great Second Gentleman, Douglas Emhoff.