2021 Annual Report
Answering the Call
Scaling Support for
Children’s Mental Health
Download Annual Report PDF
Harold S. Koplewicz, MD, President and Medical Director
Joseph Healey, Co-Chair, Board of Directors
Ram Sundaram, Co-Chair, Board of Directors
Read the full report to see how we are answering the call today, and what we are building for tomorrow.
Thanks to the tireless work of the Child Mind Institute and a growing movement of like-minded organizations and individuals, the terrible stigma that has prevented families from seeking mental health care is receding. But receding stigma has revealed another, seemingly intractable, problem. When families reach out for help, they often find that there is no one there to answer the call. The Child Mind Institute is meeting the need with far-reaching, scalable care, education and science programs that maximize impact across society. We are:
- Leading by example with best-in class clinical care and clinician training
- Developing nationwide training programs for school-based professionals
- Increasing access to trustworthy information and guidance for every family who needs them
- Bringing prevention programs to school populations
- Pushing the science forward to develop new treatments and innovative access-to-care solutions
- Forging global partnerships for systems change in children’s mental health services
Care
Scaling Care Across Communities
In 2021, the nation’s leading experts in pediatrics and psychiatry declared a state of emergency in children’s mental health, citing increased rates of depression, anxiety, trauma, loneliness, and suicidality. Evidence-based mental health care was needed more than ever. At the Child Mind Institute, we continued to offer care through our New York City and San Francisco Bay Area clinical centers. Our clinicians also shared mental health knowledge with the broader community through workshops and presentations for corporations, nonprofits, and schools. In partnership with the Stavros Niarchos Foundation, the Child Mind Institute embarked on an ambitious new venture to enhance child and adolescent mental health care in Greece and change young lives for the better.
CARE
Scaling School
and Community Programs
For the New York and California schools served by the Child Mind Institute’s School and Community Programs team, 2021 was a year of transition. As schools shifted from hybrid learning back to in-person instruction, the need for mental health support in schools was great, particularly in schools that disproportionately felt the impact of the pandemic and subsequent learning loss. By the conclusion of the 2020–21 school year, the team had served more than 11,500 students, educators, and caregivers in high-need New York and San Francisco public and charter schools. Plans for the 2021-22 school year involve a significant expansion of work to train school-based professionals to provide more in-depth support to K-12 students during challenging times.
EDUCATION
Scaling Mental Health Knowledge
In 2021, children’s mental health was at the forefront of public consciousness, and the Child Mind Institute was there to meet the increased interest and need for accessible, authoritative information. In September, we launched an organization-wide rebrand, including a new and improved childmind.org, new logo and color scheme, and an improved system of highlighting our key mission areas of care, education, and science. These efforts have allowed our free, bilingual mental health resources to reach larger audiences with greater ease. In 2021, website visitors increased by nearly 7% compared to 2020. We also launched an ambitious partnership with the state of California to support students, educators, and caregivers through the ongoing pandemic and beyond.
SCIENCE
Scaling Our Scientific Impact
The expertise and renown our scientists have cultivated over 10 years of leadership in cognitive development were recognized this year when the U.S. Surgeon General released Protecting Youth Mental Health, an advisory on the public health crisis that repeatedly cited the Child Mind Institute’s ongoing research on mental health and the pandemic. This year, we continued to advance our mission by:
- Partnering with a consortium of research institutions to develop a next-generation MRI that will revolutionize brain imaging
- Improving college students’ access to mental health care with digital tools
- Launching new research into autism
- Reaching families in need through the Healthy Brain Network
Read the Report
Download the full 2021 Annual Report to learn more about our efforts to support children and families this year, or view past Annual Reports.
