Our vision for adults living with mental illnesses is that they are engaged and supported members of the community.
We recognize advocacy at the local, state, and federal levels is essential to achieving meaningful change, so we partner with organizations from across the United States to raise awareness of critical mental health issues and to press for increased public funding.
Through our investments and advocacy, we hope to accomplish the following:
There is a strong, well-trained mental health workforce capable of meeting community need.
Adults affected by mental illness and serious mental illness have access to high-quality medical treatment and support services that enhance their quality of life.
Mental health services are well funded by public and private investment.
The Lee Foundation distinguishes mental health conditions from intellectual disabilities, such as autism. We recognize the severity of these conditions but consider them to be outside our programmatic focus. We have adopted the definition of mental illness used by the National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI):
A medical condition that disrupts a person's thinking, feeling, mood, ability to relate to others, and daily functioning. Serious mental illnesses include major depression, schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD), panic disorder, post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), and borderline personality disorder.
For additional information on mental illness, visit:
National Alliance on Mental Illness
Navigating a Mental Health Crisis
National Suicide Prevention Lifeline
The Lee Foundation is not a direct provider of mental health services.
If you are in crisis, experiencing emotional distress, or worried about someone you know, call or text 988 or chat at 988lifeline.org/chat. This service is available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.
Grantee: University of Rochester Medical Center
Project: INTERCEPT - Clinical High-Risk Program
Issue:
Serious mental illnesses such as schizophrenia and related conditions occur in 1 out of 100 people, on average. To put that in perspective, that’s more than 700 fans at every sold-out Bills game.
Characterized by symptoms such as hearing non-existent voices, unusual beliefs, difficulties with attention, and hard-to-comprehend speech – these conditions are associated with high rates of unemployment, substance abuse, depression, and suicide.
These diseases are also among the costliest and most disabling, due to treatment expenses and lost income for patients and family members. Patient lifespans are 15 to 30 years shorter as well. Yet, unlike other serious illnesses (e.g., cancer, heart disease), outcomes have not improved over the past 50 years, lifespans have not risen, and only a small percentage can access the best treatments.
In Western and Central New York, investment in solutions has lagged the downstate region. For example, the state Office of Mental Health (OMH) funds two major research centers devoted to schizophrenia and related conditions: The New York State Psychiatric Institute, in Manhattan, and the Nathan Kline Institute, in Rockland County. Until recently, there were five clinics in the state focused on preventing these illnesses – and none were outside New York City.
Solution:
Interventions for Changes in Emotions, Perception, and Thinking (INTERCEPT) is a unique mental health program for young people aged 15 to 28. Designed to address new and distressing symptoms in their early stages, it offers opportunities to help prevent progression to more serious conditions.
Through the program, young people can learn to identify, monitor, and manage changes in behavior and mental health. Treatment components are tailored to the individual and can include individual and group therapy, problem solving, social skills training, goal planning, and more. Structured to minimize disruptions to school, work, and relationships, INTERCEPT can help young people make “course corrections” on their journey to mental wellness.
INTERCEPT is strategically based at the University of Rochester Medical Center to provide a central place for Western and Central New Yorkers to access these vital services. INTERCEPT uses a comprehensive treatment approach that involves family members and focuses on keeping people in school, work and other valued roles by preventing the onset of an episode when possible and improving outcomes when not.
Grantee: Department of Psychiatry - University at Buffalo
Project: Psychology Doctoral Internship
Issue:
Western New York – like many parts of the United States – does not have a sufficient number of mental health professionals to meet community need. In fact, according to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, about 111 million people live in “mental health professional shortage areas.”
Solution:
With funding from the Lee Foundation, the University at Buffalo developed a psychology doctoral internship program that provides students with a high-quality, unique training experience.
Unlike most internship programs focused on treating either children or adults, the Lee interns work with children, adolescents, families, and younger and older adults. “The interns gain expertise in how serious mental illness develops across the entire life-span,” states Dr. Alex Cogswell, Associate Professor and Training Director of the internship program. “They learn to identify indicators of potential or worsening illness in childhood, so that they can intervene earlier and continue to manage them as they get older.”
The addition of interns to the local workforce improves access to treatment, helping to shorten the long waiting lists that permeate the region. And over the longer term, Alex predicts that psychologists completing the program will not only treat patients but develop valuable new programs as well. “They are bright, ambitious, thoughtful and creative,” he says. “They’ll be able to evaluate and improve the system by creating something new.”
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