MATERNAL MENTAL HEALTH: Brooklyn College announced a new advanced certificate program in perinatal mental health on Thursday to prepare health care, behavioral health and early education professionals to serve mothers with mental illnesses. The year-long program, which includes 120 in-person clinical hours, is designed to help workers address mental illnesses during and after pregnancy as well as address racial disparities in maternal mental health outcomes. Brooklyn College is piloting two courses this spring and will welcome its first full cohort in fall 2025. The program was designed alongside the maternal health task force named by Brooklyn Borough President Antonio Reynoso, who has promoted several policies to address the maternal mortality crisis.
HUNGER RATES: Hunger has reached a five-year high across the state, with one in 10 New Yorkers being unable to access enough food, according to a new report from the Midtown-based research group New York Health Foundation. The state hunger rate was 10.4%, up slightly from 10.2% at the height of the pandemic, with Black and Hispanic New Yorkers facing a higher risk of food insufficiency compared to white New Yorkers, the report found. Food insufficiency worsened after the expiration of pandemic-era programs like the expanded child tax credit and emergency welfare benefits, according to the foundation.
