Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg, Governor George E. Pataki and New York University (NYU) President John Sexton today announced a $200 million investment in child mental health, including plans to build a new 120,000-square-foot home for the NYU Child Study Center that will become the world's largest child and adolescent psychiatric treatment, research and training facility. The new Child Study Center will take an integrated, scientific approach to revolutionize child and adolescent mental health in America. The Child Study Center will be the first of its kind to make science the driving force behind this vital new initiative - attacking child mental disorders in much the same way the medical and scientific communities have attacked cancer.

"New York City is home to many of the leading medical, research and educational facilities in the world," said Mayor Bloomberg. "The addition of the NYU Child Study Center and its focus on treatment programs for child and adolescent psychiatric conditions will serve as a perfect compliment to the City's extraordinary research and training facilities, and our efforts to develop a commercial bioscience center with the East River Science Park. As the fourth-largest employer in New York City with over 18,600 employees in the five boroughs, we are proud of our strong partnership with New York University - one of the City's great institutions."

"Whether its education, health care or mental health services, children are our most precious resource and that is why we continue to make record investments in all of these areas," said Governor Pataki. "This announcement today is more great news and further proof that here in New York, we will do whatever it takes to ensure that our children have every opportunity to get a great start in life. I want to thank Mayor Bloomberg and New York University for their efforts to work with us and make this new facility a reality."

New York State is providing a $30 million grant for the creation of the New York State Center of Excellence at the Child Study Center, the first such center at a mental health facility. In addition, the State is providing an additional $35 million to create a new state-of-the-art Rockland Children's Psychiatric Center in Rockland County in partnership with the NYU Child Study Center, demonstrating a statewide commitment to the improvement of mental health services.

"The creation of this facility and the Center's new vision for child mental health is made possible by $30 million from the State of New York; a $30 million property owned by New York University; an over $100 million capital campaign; New York State funding for 10 new research faculty positions and 10 new residency training positions; and New York State's additional $35 million investment to build a 21st century Rockland Children's Psychiatric Center in partnership with the Child Study Center," said NYU President John Sexton. "Both Governor Pataki and Mayor Bloomberg recognize the immense public health implications of the scarcity of child mental health services in the face of a national epidemic of mental illness starting in childhood. Improving the mental health of our children in this and future generations will assure and enhance the productive potential of our youngest citizens, paying dividends for generations to come."

Using a multidisciplinary approach, the Center will leverage the outstanding resources of the NYU community (specifically faculty at the NYU School of Medicine, the Steinhardt School of Education, the Center for Neural Science, the College and Graduate Faculties of Arts and Science, and the Courant Institute for Mathematical Sciences) to allow leading child psychiatrists and psychologists, pediatricians, geneticists, mathematicians, physicists, and computer scientists, along with educators and policymakers, to address this national epidemic in child psychiatric disorders collaboratively. Plans for the innovative NYU Child Study Center include:

Establishing new laboratories and programmatic initiatives, allowing for the recruitment of internationally renowned scientists to pursue cures, treatments and preventions. Maintaining a total of 38 clinical and research training positions, constituting the largest training program in child and adolescent psychiatry in the nation. Housing 500 research faculty, trainees and staff that will work in 12 independent laboratories focusing on specific mental health and behavioral disorders. Enhancing and expanding the NYU Child Study Center's work in the areas of Anxiety and Mood Disorders, Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity (ADHD) and Behavior Disorders, Prevention Science, Pediatric Neuroscience, Tourette's and Movement Disorders, Trauma and Stress, and Learning Disabilities. Establishing a comprehensive clinical and research Eating Disorders Program and a state-of-the-art Autism Center. Creating a lab school to model and demonstrate scientifically sound strategies and new approaches to address students at risk for violence and disorders of conduct within the public school system.

"The Center of Excellence will change the existing child mental health paradigm by developing more effective and efficient ways to prevent, identify, and treat mental illness," said Harold S. Koplewicz, MD, founder and director of the Child Study Center. "The development of this facility will provide revolutionary new approaches to child mental health, and will have a transformative impact on the treatment of child psychiatric disorders similar to that of the Salk and Sabin vaccines on polio." Dr. Koplewicz also noted that 12% of Americans under the age of 18 have psychiatric disorders and that up to 70% of those children are never diagnosed and never receive treatment.

The new Child Study Center will open in three years and is a part of the NYU School of Medicine. For more information about the Child Study Center, please visit www.aboutourkids.org.