ICYMI: Phoenix House CEO & Senator Fernandez Urge Deeper Investment to Combat NY's Behavioral Health Crisis

NEW YORK, NY (06/12/2025) (readMedia)-- In the wake of proposed Medicaid cuts, Phoenix House President and CEO Ann-Marie Foster and Senator Nathalia Fernandez authored an op-ed for amNY, urging State leaders to commit to sustained programmatic investment and wage increases for essential staff to tackle New York's overlapping mental health and substance use crises. Earlier this week, Phoenix House joined Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer and several treatment providers to demand Congress reject the federal spending bill cuts, which threaten to eliminate substance abuse programs and reduce services.

Ann-Marie Foster serves as a member of the New York State Bar Association's Taskforce on Opioid Addiction, and Bronx Senator Nathalia Fernandez chairs the Alcoholism and Substance Use Disorders Committee.

Full Text:

Without real funding, New York's behavioral health crisis is here to stay

By Senator Nathalia Fernandez and Ann-Marie Foster, President & CEO of Phoenix House

New York is in the midst of a behavioral health crisis - one that demands urgent investment, bold leadership, and a commitment to equitable care. As treatment disparities continue to persist, about 945,000 New Yorkers are going without essential care for mental health challenges and another 90,000 New Yorkers report an unmet need for substance use disorder treatment. Meanwhile, imminent federal cuts to billions in Medicaid funding threaten to further destabilize our fragmented system, putting more low-income residents - and particularly those of color - at risk of losing care. Set against soaring inflation and a collapsing workforce, our state is in desperate need of real investment in behavioral care. Without deeper, sustained funding for these life-saving services, and necessary wage increases for the essential staff leading this work, New Yorkers in need will suffer dire consequences.

Our behavioral healthcare system has seen protracted underinvestment for several decades, leaving providers struggling to provide quality care. At Phoenix House of New York and Long Island, we see the human cost of this chronic underfunding every day. 60% of our clients rely on Medicaid, and they are among the most vulnerable New Yorkers - people battling addiction, mental illness, and homelessness with nowhere else to turn. But even as demand for services surges around our state, provider capacity is simply crumbling. Recent data reveals that the overall number of clients served by mental health clinics statewide increased by more than half between 2009 and 2021, while overall staffing increased by only 37.7%. Staff-to-client ratios have dropped by nearly 25% as a result of record-setting, sector-wide workforce vacancy rates reaching up to 30%, while turnover nears 35%.

The challenges are clear: clinicians and counselors, overworked and underpaid, are leaving for jobs that offer livable wages. Programs are shutting down. Waitlists are growing. Emergency rooms remain overwhelmed with patients in acute crisis. And the door to treatment is closing. For Black and Latino New Yorkers who represent the largest proportion of admissions to the state's Office of Addiction Services and Supports, this convergence of factors only serves to exacerbate disparities in health outcomes. On the frontline, we see the impact as Bronx residents of color continue to face the highest rate of fatal overdoses out of all New Yorkers. When a treatment bed isn't available, a person struggling with addiction relapses. When a mental health clinic closes, someone in crisis ends up in an ER - or worse, a jail cell. When caseworkers are stretched too thin, vulnerable clients fall through the cracks. These are not inevitable outcomes; they are policy failures.

Although Governor Hochul and the Legislature have taken important steps in recent years to expand mental health services –- including last year's pledge to overhaul the system - this budget falls short of meeting those goals. Without adequate funding to support the workforce and infrastructure needed to address these issues, we risk undermining the state's broader mental health initiatives.

The current system relies too heavily on the extraordinary dedication of underpaid staff and the resilience of vulnerable New Yorkers who deserve better. The solution must begin with immediate reinvestment in the behavioral health workforce. While inflation has driven costs up more than 20% around the country, New York's final executive budget approved a minimal 2.6% cost of living adjustment for behavioral health providers. This targeted increase does very little to support a workforce that's already at its limits and does nothing to address the rising costs to sustain services.

This is not a sustainable model.

To meet the urgency of this crisis, New York must take decisive action - starting with a multi-year strategy to stabilize, expand, and modernize our treatment infrastructure. Fair and competitive wages for behavioral health workers are essential to maintaining a qualified workforce. Recruitment and retention efforts will continue to falter unless compensation keeps pace with inflation and remains competitive with other sectors. It's equally critical that New York shore up contingency funding to make up for Congress's cuts and ensure that low-income New Yorkers continue to have access to essential services.

The stakes could not be higher. This is not just a budget issue; it is a matter of life and death. Every delay contributes to preventable overdoses, untreated illness, and families left to navigate a fractured system.

We must build a stronger behavioral health system that's capable of meeting all New Yorkers' mental health and substance use disorder care needs. New York has the resources to respond. What remains is the political will to fund mental health and substance use disorder programs at the level demanded by the system - before more New Yorkers are forced to pay the price.

Senator Nathalia Fernandez represents the 34th Senate District, covering parts of the Bronx and Westchester. She is the Chair of the Alcoholism and Substance Use Disorders Committee.

Ann-Marie Foster, FACHE is the President & CEO of Phoenix House of New York & Long Island, which offers clinical services, residential and outpatient treatment for people with substance use and co-occurring mental health disorders. She is a member of the New York State Bar Association's Taskforce on Opioid Addiction.

About Phoenix House:

For nearly 60 years, Phoenix House New York and Long Island has helped thousands of people overcome substance and alcohol use in order to lead healthy, productive, and rewarding lives. Born as a model for integrated substance use treatment, Phoenix House has grown into a treatment network that offers short-term and long-term residential, intensive outpatient, and general outpatient treatment. Phoenix House also offers treatment for co-occurring mental health disorders, clinical services, medication for addiction treatment, health and wellness goals, and vocational and educational support.

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