New York City offers free mental health support to teens through Talkspace
NEW YORK (PIX11) — Free therapy is being offered to teens in New York City.
The company Talkspace partnered with the New York City Health Department to offer the service free of charge to 13- to 17-year-olds living in the city.
NYC Teenspace gives teens a licensed therapist they can talk to through messaging, video sessions and live chats, according to the website.
Teens can also use the app Talkspace Go, which is aimed at helping teens gain confidence and improve their mental and emotional health.
Signing up is simple; you visit talkspace.com/nyc and click “Get Started.” There will be a questionnaire to fill out and a parent or guardian consent form before a teen is matched with a therapist, typically within 24 hours.
The free service provides one live video chat a month and unlimited messages with their therapist, according to the website.
“With teenage anxiety on the rise, we made clear that New York City would get our young people the help they need and provide teenagers with free tele-mental health services. Six months later, the data shows our efforts are paying off, and we’ve already helped more than 6,800 teenagers get the mental health care they need through ‘NYC Teenspace,’” said Mayor Eric Adams.
New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene Commissioner Dr. Ashwin Vasan and Adams announced that over 6,800 New York City teens signed up for the service in the first six months, with 80% of users identifying as “Black, Hispanic, Asian American and Pacific Islander, bi-racial or Native American.” The city also announced that 70% of users are girls, while 23% are boys.
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“‘NYC Teenspace’ offers a critical tool to support young people, ages 13 to 17, on their smartphones via talk, text, or video chat so they can engage in ways that work for them,” said Deputy Mayor for Health and Human Services Anne Williams-Isom. “In the first six months of this initiative, nearly 7,000 young people have signed up, and four out of five users are from Black and Brown communities, which we know were some of the hardest hit during the pandemic. This initiative is just one piece of our broader family and youth mental health strategy.”
Talkspace offers office hours on Tuesdays and Thursdays on Zoom to help parents, teens and educators learn more about the program and ask questions.
For more info on NYC Teenspace, click here.
Jonathan Rizk is a digital journalist who has covered local news in New York City and Washington, D.C. He has been with PIX11 since August 2022. See more of his work here, and follow him on X and Facebook @OfficialRizk. Get in touch at jonathan.rizk@pix11.com.
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