TOWN OF WALLKILL – Currently, New York residents may check off
donations on their state income tax returns for fish and wildlife management,
the US Olympic Committee, breast cancer research and education, missing
and exploited children, Alzheimer’s, prostate cancer, the World
Trade Center Memorial Foundation, and vlunteer firefighting and EMS recruitment,
but not to fight the mental health stigma.
Assemblywoman Aileen Gunter (D, Forestburgh) led the charge to have legislation approved for that and now the bill awaits action from Governor Cuomo.
Gunther rallied mental health advocates at the Independent Living Center in the Town of Wallkill on Wednesday to call on the governor to sign the measure.
“The goal of this legislation is to shine some light in the dark places and begin to talk about and treatment mental illness honestly and openly like any other illness because it is like any other illness,” she said.
Glenn Liebman, CEO of the Mental Health Association in New York State, said the income tax check-off is long overdue.
“One in five people in this country are impacted directly by mental health-related issues in the course of a year. If you add family members like myself, close friends, we are all impacted,” Liebman said. “There is nobody I know of who is either directly or indirectly impacted by mental health-related issues and yet for several reasons, led by stigma, people do not seek services.”
Orange County Mental Health Commissioner Darcie Miller called the mental health issue “a public crisis.”
