NYC H+H Mental Health Awareness Month: New Program To Strengthen Behavioral Health Workforce, Three Physicians Recognized For Health Equity Fellowship
Editor’s note: Our recent coverage of NYC Health +Hospitals included new mental health provider credentialing questions for incoming practitioners. We also recently covered this hospital system’s changeover to a plant based meal plan for all in patients at their facilities.
FOR MENTAL HEALTH AWARENESS MONTH, NYC HEALTH + HOSPITALS AND PROJECT RENEWAL ANNOUNCE NEW $2 MILLION PROGRAM TO STRENGTHEN THE BEHAVIORAL HEALTH WORKFORCE
Care Corps helps New Yorkers who have experienced housing and job insecurity start a career in behavioral health
Since the program launched last year, 45 people have graduated and 78% of them have been hired
Trainees in the Care Corps program. Image Credit – NYC H+H
(New York, NY) – As part of Mental Health Awareness Month, NYC Health + Hospitals and Project Renewal today announced Care Corps, a new program that trains New Yorkers who have faced significant barriers to employment to serve in entry-level positions in behavioral health. The $2 million program was created to help fill vacant positions at NYC Health + Hospitals and create a strong behavioral health workforce pipeline. Since the program launched last year, 45 people have graduated, and 78% of them (35 people) have been hired at NYC Health + Hospitals or another hospital system in New York City. It is slated to train additional participants through 2026 and may expand based on ongoing workforce needs. Care Corps is a free program that offers three weeks of classroom training at Project Renewal followed by a three-week internship, where students practice scenarios with actors in a hospital setting at NYC Health + Hospitals’ Institute for Medical Simulation and Advanced Learning. As part of the program model, NYC Health + Hospitals pays Care Corps participants based on the number of training hours they complete in their internship to simulate a true work experience and foster accountability. Graduates qualify for roles as Psychiatric Social Health Technicians, working in inpatient psychiatric units to support behavioral health nurses with patient activities of daily living, observation, wellness checks, hallway monitoring, and escorts. Salaries start at $50,000 a year, plus union and medical benefits. Individuals with a high school diploma or educational equivalent are eligible to apply and can learn more about the program here. A video about the program is available here.
“Our workforce is the backbone of the City’s health care system,” said Sophie Pauze, Senior Director, Strategy & Impact, Office of Behavioral Health, NYC Health + Hospitals. “We are proud to launch this new initiative with our partners at Project Renewal, the Office of Patient Centered Care and IMSAL to expand opportunities for New Yorkers to enter the behavioral health workforce, creating a supported pathway into an essential nursing support role with significant opportunities for growth and career advancement. This program reflects the health care system’s deep commitment to fostering a strong and inclusive workforce and helping make NYC Health + Hospitals the go-to place for careers in public behavioral health.”
“At NYC Health + Hospitals, we are committed to delivering exceptional care to our communities while also fostering opportunities for New Yorkers,” said NYC Health + Hospitals Director of Nursing Simulation in the Office of Patient Centered Care, Kimberly Campbell-Taylor, MSN-Ed, RN, CHSE. “The Care Corps program embodies this commitment by providing individuals with a pathway to acquire valuable skills and join the behavioral health workforce. Through our partnership with Project Renewal and the utilization of our advanced simulation facilities at the Institute for Medical Simulation and Advanced Learning, we are proud to prepare the next generation of Psychiatric Social Health Technicians.”
“The Psychiatric Social Health Technicians program has been an amazing collaboration between the Office of Behavioral Health and the Institute for Simulation in Healthcare,” said Dr. Michael Meguerdichian, MD, MPH-Ed, Chief System Medical Simulation Officer of NYC Health + Hospitals Institute for Simulation and Advanced Learning. “This collaborative has allowed community members to understand the job they are applying for and develop the skills they need to succeed when faced with the challenges of behavioral health units.”
“What makes the Care Corps internship unique is that we don’t just teach skills — we create an immersive learning experience that allows trainees to rehearse the realities of behavioral health care in a psychologically safe environment,” said Dana Trottier, PhD, LCAT, RDT/BCT, Director of the Fellowship in Healthcare Simulation at NYC Health + Hospitals, Institute for Medical Simulation and Advanced Learning. “In developing this program, I wanted trainees to experience the full arc of inpatient psychiatric care, from admission through discharge, while building both clinical confidence and emotional resilience. By working with the same simulated patients over several weeks, trainees develop therapeutic relationships, practice crisis response, and learn how to navigate complex human interactions before ever stepping onto a behavioral health unit. That continuity helps prepare graduates not only to perform the job, but to thrive in it with empathy, professionalism, and confidence.”
“At Project Renewal, we believe that stable employment can be transformative and that lived experience is a powerful asset in behavioral health care,” said Jaime Madden, Chief Operating Officer of Project Renewal. “Through Care Corps, participants are gaining the skills, support, and hands-on experience needed to build long-term careers while helping meet the growing demand for behavioral health services across New York City. This partnership with NYC Health + Hospitals is creating new opportunities for New Yorkers who have faced barriers to employment while strengthening the city’s behavioral health workforce.”
Today’s announcement builds on the range of initiatives that NYC Health + Hospitals has launched to grow its behavioral health workforce, including:
- The Behavioral Health Nursing Career Ladder, which provides staff, including Psychiatric Social Health Technicians, with educational support and financial assistance to enroll in nursing school in exchange for a three-year commitment to NYC Health + Hospitals.
- Psychiatric Mental Health Nurse Practitioner fellowships, which provide early-career staff with intensive training to increase skills and confidence and foster their upward career mobility.
- The Psychiatric Physician Assistant Career Pathways Program, allowing Physician Assistant (PA) students to rotate through behavioral health clinical placements and didactics, fostering interest in the field.
- The NextGen Public Psychiatry Leadership Program, a new initiative for third-year Psychiatry Residents to enhance their training through mentorship, lectures, and site visits—nurturing long-term interest in public sector psychiatry.
- The BH4NYC Loan Repayment Program, which provides student debt relief to behavioral health clinicians at NYC Health + Hospitals.
The Care Corps program also represents NYC Health + Hospitals’ larger workforce development strategy of incorporating behavioral health simulation to enhance healthcare professionals’ clinical skills and competence. Simulation training has been shown to enhance healthcare professionals’ clinical skills and competence. By practicing in a simulated environment, learners can refine their technical abilities, procedural skills, and decision-making, leading to better performance in real clinical situations. In addition, participants in simulation programs often report increased confidence in their clinical abilities and reduced stress when facing real-life scenarios.
NYC Health + Hospitals is the largest provider of behavioral health in New York City. The system provides nearly 60% of behavioral health services citywide serving over 82,000 patients annually across emergency, inpatient and outpatient care.
UNITED HOSPITAL FUND SELECTS THREE NYC HEALTH + HOSPITALS PHYSICIANS FOR HEALTH EQUITY FELLOWSHIP
The 18-month leadership program focuses on advancing community-driven solutions to health disparities across New York
(New York, NY – May 13, 2026) — United Hospital Fund has named three physicians from NYC Health + Hospitals for its new cohort of the Health Equity Fellowship, an 18-month leadership development program designed to support clinicians working to address health disparities and improve outcomes in underserved communities across New York. Fellows partner with community-based organizations to create innovative solutions that extend beyond traditional clinical care and address the social and structural factors that influence health outcomes. Their Action Learning Projects focus on a range of health equity priorities, including chronic disease prevention and education, adolescent wellness, legal advocacy in pediatric asthma care, expanded access to housing and food resources, and improved transitions of care for patients with complex medical and social needs, including people living with HIV/AIDS and members of LGBTQ+ communities.
- Michelle Glick, MD, MA, FAAP, a pediatrician from NYC Health + Hospitals/Lincoln, will partner with the New York Legal Assistance Group. Her project will bridge pediatric asthma care with legal advocacy for safe housing by training physicians, improving documentation, and formalizing referral pathways to address housing-related health disparities.
- Ofole Mgbako, MD, Section Chief of Infectious Diseases at NYC Health + Hospitals/Bellevue and Director of the hospital’s HIV Equity Research Program, will partner with Alliance for Positive Change. His project will focus on improving hospital-to-community care transitions by integrating peer‑led supports to reduce social isolation and strengthen outpatient engagement for patients with advanced HIV and substance‑related infections.
- James Winston Grigg, MD, Associate Medical Director of the Primary Care Safety Net clinic at NYC Health + Hospitals/Bellevue, will partner with Coordinated Behavioral Care. His project will develop a “Housing as Health Care” learning collaborative to train staff, improve referrals, and expand equitable access to housing‑related services.
“United Hospital Fund is proud to launch the second cohort of the Health Equity Fellowship, partnering with seven talented clinicians leading efforts to address health inequities across New York,” said UHF President and CEO Oxiris Barbot, MD. “Together, we’re building the leadership capacity, connections, and support needed to sustain and scale this work.”
With over 15 years dedicated to advancing children’s health equity through education, research, and clinical care, Dr. Glick brings a unique multidisciplinary perspective to pediatric medicine. Driven by a desire to bridge teaching and medicine to address health disparities impacting children, Dr. Glick served as an asthma educator and clinical research coordinator at Children’s National Medical Center before completing medical school at Thomas Jefferson University on an urban health track, and residency at the University of Michigan’s C.S. Mott Children’s Hospital.
Now entering her fifth year at Lincoln Hospital in the South Bronx, Dr. Glick cares for a medically and socially complex patient population and conducts visits in both English and Spanish. As a Cornell Assistant Professor of Clinical Pediatrics at Lincoln, she precepts residents, leads bedside teaching and didactic lectures, and assists resident advocacy projects. She serves as Lincoln Pediatrics Asthma Champion with the Joint Commission, is a Fellow of the American Academy of Pediatrics, and is Medical Champion for Lincoln’s Reach Out & Read program.
James Grigg, MD is a Clinical Associate Professor at New York University Grossman School of Medicine and Associate Medical Director of NYC Health + Hospitals (H + H)/Bellevue Primary Care Safety Net (PCSN) clinic, which serves patients with complex medical problems experiencing homelessness. In this role he assists in overseeing the PCSN clinic and is the medical lead for the Bellevue Street Health Outreach and Wellness (SHOW) vans—multidisciplinary teams delivering street medicine. His clinical work at H + H/Bellevue includes general internal medicine practice in hospital medicine and primary care in the Adult Primary Care Clinic, PCSN clinic and SHOW vans.
Dr. Ofole Mgbako is an Assistant Professor of Medicine and Population Health at NYU Grossman School of Medicine, Section Chief of Infectious Diseases at NYC Health + Hospitals/Bellevue, and Director of NYU/Bellevue’s HIV Equity Research Program. At Bellevue, Dr. Mgbako leads outpatient virology and infectious diseases services and the inpatient consult program, caring for medically and socially complex populations. His research advances health equity through biobehavioral and implementation strategies that expand access to HIV prevention and treatment innovations. His work focuses on improving HIV, substance use, and mental health outcomes among racially, gender, and sexually minoritized populations, with particular attention to the impacts of structural racism, homophobia, transphobia, and other structural drivers of health inequities. He is an affiliated investigator at the Center for Drug Use and HIV Research.
The Health Equity Fellowship is supported by Freedom Together Foundation and builds on United Hospital Fund’s longstanding commitment to cultivating health care leadership and advancing equitable care delivery throughout the region.
Banner Image: Trainees in the Care Corps program. Image Credit – NYC H+H
