Smart philanthropy: How The Trust has Improved Mental Health Care - The New York Community Trust

October 22, 2021 | By The New York Community Trust

Smart philanthropy: How The Trust has Improved Mental Health Care

Highlights from our donor briefing with Dr. Henry Chung, VP of care management organization at Montefiore Medical Center and associate professor of clinical psychiatry at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine

For decades, The New York Community Trust has been at the forefront of improving the mental health care system in the city and beyond. Over the years, The Trust has given grants to effective nonprofits improving care for New Yorkers. Dr. Henry Chung has worked with some of these organizations to create programs that have become national models: in Chinatown, to help residents get timely care; at New York University, to bolster the college’s ability to connect students with health services; and at Montefiore Medical Center, to integrate mental health services into its primary care system so more patients receive treatments.

Below are some excerpts from Dr. Chung’s conversation with our deputy vice president for grantmaking, Irfan Hasan. They discuss the pandemic’s immediate and lasting effects on our mental-health care system, the impact of racism within the healthcare system, the influence of the insurance industry, and more.

Care for the disenfranchised

Dr. Chung discusses the stigma surrounding the field of mental health and how people in communities unaccustomed to seeking help from mental-health professionals are less likely to receive the care they need.

Crisis leads to opportunity

The COVID-19 pandemic forced mental-health providers to quickly pivot to online telehealth services. Dr. Chung talks about this treatment revolution and what it means for the future of mental health care.

Racism and therapy

Dr. Chung tells a story about a colleague’s experience with a micro-aggression and uses it to illustrate how the mental-health field needs to address the harmful effects of systemic racism on patients’ health.

The insurance industry’s influence

Dr. Chung discusses recent insurance company efforts to meet patients’ mental-health needs to the same degree as their physical-health needs.

These interactive briefings give our donors an opportunity to think about their philanthropic legacy and how to align it with their personal vision and values.

To learn more about joining our community of donors, contact John Oddy, our vice president for donor relations, at jjo@nyct-cfi.org or click here.