Pataki To Allocate $65 Million to NYU For Children’s Mental Health Services
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Governor Pataki announced yesterday that he is allocating $65 million in state money to New York University so that its medical arm can expand its psychiatric services for children and teenagers.
About $30 million of the state money will go toward the construction of a 120,000 square-foot child study center on First Avenue.That facility will house a new state “center of excellence” in child mental health and serve as hub for clinical work and research as well as thousands of patients and hundreds of doctors.
The state is earmarking another $35 million to construct a children’s psychiatric center in Rockland County, which NYU will be a partner in.
The state money is part of a $200 million project NYU officials said will make its new center the largest facility in the world devoted to depression, anxiety, autism, and other psychiatric ailments in children and adolescents. News of the expansion was reported Thursday in The New York Sun.
Yesterday, Mr. Pataki, Mayor Bloomberg, NYU’s president, John Sexton, and a number of NYU board members and doctors gathered at the existing Child Study Center, where they touted the cash infusion as a crucial investment in a medical specialty that long has long been neglected, especially in New York.
The board of directors at the Child Study Center has committed to raising $100 million privately as part of the plan, NYU is kicking in a $30 million property, and the state has agreed to also pay for the training of 10 new faculty positions and 10 new residency training position. The director of the center, Harold Koplewicz, said 12% of Americans under the age of 18 have psychiatric disorders and up to 70% are never diagnosed.
