Deepa Avula, MPH, executive deputy commissioner of the Division of Mental Hygiene for the NYC Department of Health and Mental Hygiene, recently spoke with the Amsterdam News about NYC TeenSpace, a free mental health support program available to adolescents aged 13 to 17 living in New York City. This interview has been edited and condensed for clarity.
AmNews: Please tell us about the NYC TeenSpace program.
NYC TeenSpace is a program that was launched by the New York City Health Department on November 15, 2023. We are partnering with Talkspace, the vendor that provides the platform that New York City is funding and supporting. Essentially, the program is designed to
provide individuals who are 13 to 17 with mental health services at no cost to them or their families. Part of the reason that we felt really strongly that we needed to do that was because we know that there is a youth mental health crisis that’s growing in our city, as there is across the country, and we wanted to be responsive to that need and to be able to provide services with the least amount of barriers as possible.
AmNews: Could you talk about mental health issues that have arisen for teens because of COVID?
We are seeing issues increase among youth since the COVID pandemic. In terms of adjusting to life during the pandemic, children and teenagers had to deal with things that sort of kept them away from regular and routine activities. [There also was] a lot of fear, a lot of anxiety; many children also lost loved ones so a lot of grief…We are very concerned about it and TeenSpace is intended to help address some of those issues by providing emotional support and mental health services to [adolescents] in as least a burdensome a way as possible.
AmNews: Can you give us the details of how TeenSpace works?
Any New York City teen who thinks they want to talk to somebody; any teen who may be struggling, may be stressed, may be feeling a little depressed, may be feeling a little bit lonely, may be having a bad time and not really sure what to call it—they can log onto the site and essentially there are two paths.
One path is self-guided, so if the teenager does not necessarily want to start talking to somebody but wants to try to understand different emotions they may be feeling, wants to understand different feelings they may be having—there are ways to do that. There are resources that are available to the teenager to be able to do that at their own pace. To receive talk or text therapy from a licensed therapist, they would fill out a [short] intake form that asks them some basic demographic questions; why they are seeking to talk to somebody; and for their parents’ information because to receive therapy from the program, New York State law does require parental consent. There are certain exemptions to that, including situations of abuse and other situations noted on the platform, but once the parent provides consent, that information is used to match the teenager with a licensed therapist.
We’ve been able to provide matching with therapists within hours of logging onto the system. Often, when a person reaches out for therapy or makes the decision that they need help, one of the factors that contributes to changing their mind or not getting [help] is when they’re put on a waiting list or there is lag time between deciding you need help and a therapist actually being available. We don’t want to lose a teen during that time. We want to be able to keep that teen engaged. So far, we have been able to do our matching within hours [and] we’re very pleased about that.
AmNews: How are you spreading the word about the program?
We are doing a lot of different things. One is, we incorporated the youth into our promotion of the program. We are using social media influencers to make sure that we’re getting right to the teenagers. We are definitely relying on schools—schools have been a great partner in helping us get the word out. We are able to go to health fairs to do events in the community. We’ve done a number of webinars with parents and school staff as well as [use] our Health Department channels. We are continually wanting to do all we can to make sure that as many people as possible hear about this and know about this.
NYC residents between the ages of 13 to 17 who seek mental health resources can visit www.nyc.gov/site/doh/health/health-topics/teenspace.page to learn more.