ELEVATE Nightlife Mental Health Initiative

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ELEVATE Nightlife Health & Wellbeing Initiative

Throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, people who work in the nightlife industry have kept our city running, while facing significant emotional and physical demands of their own: many became unemployed, risked exposure to illness, and became isolated from their communities. The uncertainty and anxiety associated with COVID-19 has created a collective trauma in the industry.

Now, people who work in the industry are charged with bringing back the city's thriving nightlife, but they may bring with them lingering and new mental health concerns. In response the NYC Office of Nightlife is now working with our partners at the Express Care at NYC Health + Hospitals to help connect the nightlife community directly with health and wellness resources and services through the ELEVATE Nightlife Mental Health Initiative.

Videos:

Additional resources for the nightlife, entertainment, and hospitality community:

  • Express Care is a fast, easy way to see a doctor for common health issues that are not life-threatening. Skip the emergency room. Urgent care on your smartphone or computer.

  • Sound Mind Live is a non-profit organization that focuses on building a community and open dialogue around mental health through music.

  • Hip-Hop Public Health through their pioneering multisensory multilevel health education model, young people develop essential health literacy knowledge and skills and serve as intergenerational advocates for themselves, their families and their communities.

  • MusiCares is a charity that has provided Millions in health, financial, and rehabilitation resources to music people in times of need because music gives so much to the world.

  • NYC Care guarantees low-cost and no-cost physical and behavioral health services to New Yorkers who do not have health insurance. All services are provided through NYC Health + Hospitals. To enroll, call 1-646-NYC-CARE (1-646-692-2273).

  • NYC Well provides free confidential crisis counseling and peer support 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, via call, text and chat in over 200 languages regardless of insurance or immigration status. Counselors also provide information about and referral to ongoing mental health and substance use services. For people in crisis, they can dispatch teams that respond within a few hours for in-person assessment and assistance.

  • Healthy Hospo offers a digital training platform that supports the physical, mental and emotional wellbeing of hospitality professionals around the world.

  • A Balanced Glass is an online forum that offers knowledge, tools and resources to professionals who work with or around alcohol, to manage long-term health.

  • Restaurant After Hours, a non-profit founded by career hospitality industry workers, provides mental health resources for hospitality workers.

  • Focus on Health offers health and wellness programs, a podcast and resources for the food and beverage industry.

  • Ben’s Friends brings together chefs, bartenders, line cooks, servers, sommeliers, hosts and hostesses, general managers and owners who have found or are seeking sobriety. Ben’s Friends offers Zoom and in-person meetings that provide a safe space for members to connect and support one another with compassion and acceptance.

  • Backline is a nonprofit that connects those in the nightlife industry and their families with mental health and wellness resources. Backline offers case management, support groups and free subscriptions to telehealth apps.

  • New York Project Hope helps New Yorkers understand their reactions and emotions. Call the Emotional Support Helpline at 1-844-863-9314 from 8am-10pm for free, confidential and anonymous support and connection to services near you.

  • NAMI NYC offers peer support groups for individuals living with mental health challenges and/or mental illness. Additionally, NAMI Family Support Group is a peer-led support group for any adult with a loved one who has experienced symptoms of a mental health condition.

  • How to Help Someone Who Needs Mental Healthcare: If you want to help someone who needs mental healthcare, you can. This guide from the Mayor’s Office of Community Mental Health walks you through how to get mental health support for anyone, at any level of need – including what to know, where to look, and who to call.

  • NYC Nightlife United is an action coalition created by and for the nightlife community, which provides meals, emergency grants, and other critical resources to people in the nightlife industry.