Prioritizing Maternal Mental Health
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bit.ly slash book club IRL for tickets. Grab yours before they sell out. Rise and shine, fever dreamers. Look alive, my friends. I'm V Spear. And I'm Sammy Sage. And this is American Fever Dream presented by Betches News, where we explore the absurdities and oddities of our uniquely American experience. Today, we are joined by New York Governor, our Governor, Kathy Hochul, to chat state politics, health care in New York, maternal, mental, and otherwise, and

the 2024 state races. Welcome, Governor Hochul. We are so pleased to have you on the show. Really happy to join both of you. Thank you. Thank you. There's so much to talk about and we only have a few minutes with you. So we really want to cover something that is a deeply important topic to us, to our listeners, and it is the issue of maternal health care and family leave.

Under your administration, New York has now become the first state to create a paid family leave program for prenatal care in addition to 12 weeks of paid family leave, which we do not get federally. But thankfully here in New York, we do have some recourse for that. So given the groundbreaking nature of this program, can you tell us about some of the benefits included in that program and what you're also looking to push for going forward?

Well, thank you. This is part of my priority to make New York State the most family and mom-friendly place you can possibly live. And why is that so important to me? I'm the first mom to be governor. So I raised kids. I know the stresses. I had trouble finding childcare. I had to leave a job I loved. I had trouble trying to make appointments when I was pregnant with my children. And I know how important it is. We have a huge crisis on our hands. The number of women...

who die in childbirth or lose their babies compared to other industrialized nations is shameful in America, especially for black and brown women, three to four times higher to more likely to lose their lives. So getting pregnant should not be a death sentence, which is it is for many women. So what do we have to do?

When moms are pregnant, they need to have the time off from their jobs, especially if they have a minimum wage job and they can't leave because they're worried about not having the money to bring home the groceries that night.

Then we're going to say, I'm sorry, it's important for us that you have a healthy childbirth and we're going to make sure that your employer has to cover the cost of you taking time off. So that's just one area. We're also supporting doulas who are the coaches who can help a lot of women get through the stresses and also some of the racism that's involved when women are trying to seek care from doctors and others who are not culturally competent and don't understand unique challenges. So we're focused on that.

Also making sure that we give more money to parents trying to raise kids, increasing the tax credits. I'm a new grandma too, so I got to get that out there too. We have a two-year-old in the family. And I know it's the most expensive time for a family, from my own experience too, is infant to age four or five when they're constantly out growing their clothes and they need diapers and formulas. And our tax assistance for families is,

Before I became governor, didn't start when the kids, until the children were five years old, they said, no, no, we're going to put more money in the hands of parents. So there's a lot we can do to protect them. But sometimes it's take someone who's lived the experience, who can speak to it in the firsthand basis and say, we're making these changes and I really hope the rest of the nation will follow.

Governor Hochul, I have a two-year-old niece, and I'm going to tell you right now, you would win re-election with every mother in the state of New York if you ran on Governor Hochul's fruit budget for toddlers. Okay, my sister is spending like $80 a week on berries for this kid. She's crazy about fruit and berries, and we know that that's something that's obviously very important to them growing up.

Our baby's into avocados. You know how expensive an avocado is? Who could afford to give your child an avocado every day? So I get it. I get it. Because you used to give the kids a jar of this really watered down crappy stuff called baby food. No, no, no. Everybody's getting the nice, fresh, healthy food, which is so much better, but it definitely costs more and families are struggling.

I'm telling you. And here in Rochester, you mentioned that doula program. That was something that was pioneered in partnership with my state senator, Samara Brooke, who was also one of the down ballot girlies of the week for American Fever Dream. We love her so much. And I wanted to thank you personally because I was chatting with my state senator, as everyone should.

And she was telling me how you and your office had approved her $250,000 grant expansion for the Medicaid doula program, which is just absolutely changing lives up here in Rochester. I was wondering if you had any future plans for how we could expand that program and get more help for moms who are on Medicaid.

Well, we have Medicaid coverage now for doulas. That's something we did. It's brand new. And again, making it more affordable, these complimentary services that women can take advantage of that a lot of people don't know about. That's why we also have a statewide doula directory. Where do you find one? I heard about them. What are they? What do they do? Now we're going to make it so much easier to get that information. Nobody's leaning into these systems the way we are, but we know that...

To raise a child, to have a child, to go through the whole experience is a very lonely time for women, especially if you don't have a partner, you're on your own, and it's overwhelming. So whatever I can do from my own experiences or what I hear from my son and daughter-in-law raising a child or others,

It's deeply personal to me to get this right. So people across the country will know that New York is that place that sets the standard high. We live here because we love it, but I want other states to be doing the same because every family should have the same positive outcomes when it comes to childbirth and maternal health overall. So those are going to continue to be my top priorities for families. Mm-hmm.

Yeah. And just what you're speaking to the time around when people have kids is so it's such a tender time and it can be so emotional. And having a support system is, you know, not something that, you know, is necessarily something everyone has and can be something that people take for granted. And sometimes there are needs that have to sort of fall on the government.

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$45 upfront payment equivalent to $15 per month. New customers on first three-month plan only. Taxes and fees extra. Speeds lower above 40 gigabytes. See details. One thing we wanted to talk about is the $1 billion plan to overhaul the state's mental health system. And...

$1.6 million of that was specifically earmarked for maternal mental health initiatives. Can you tell us some of the details of what this $1 billion package is going to cover, as well as some of the specific maternal mental health initiatives, and how do New Yorkers access it? Right. I'm so proud of this. I was governor just literally a few months, but I announced something that no other governor had ever talked about. There's always been a stigma associated with mental health.

No one talks about it. There's sort of a shame involved if you're trying to get assistance and it's not available to kids in schools and others. It's inaccessible. It's how do you pay for it? So everything around it has been a challenge for people to get the help they need.

Especially now after the pandemic, look at all the people who are so adversely affected, you know, psychologically, mentally, that chaos that surrounded your lives, that instability, the uncertainty about the future. It took its toll on most Americans.

but no one wants to talk about getting assistance. So I said, we're going to talk about this. $1 billion funds a whole continuum of care, starting with right in children's schools. And I'll be going to one in Buffalo tomorrow. And I just was at one in Albany. I was in the Bronx yesterday.

We are going places to talk about how schools should be the place where there's actually a certified counselor or a therapist, some expert who can, during school hours, have office time for children to access. We literally did an event yesterday in Albany where we had a teenage girl who talked about the stress she was under and how she was able to, in her school, get the appointments to get on a healthy path. So we're funding schools. We're funding...

more training for people to go into the mental health profession. There's not enough workers at all levels. We're making hospitals open up more mental health beds because you see someone on the streets, whether it's in Rochester or in the streets of New York City, someone who has a severe mental health problem

is living on the streets, they cannot take care of themselves. You want to get them care and there's no beds available in the hospitals to take them. So we're forcing the hospitals to open more beds, providing assistance for them as well. And also comes down to, in a place like New York City, public safety because people get anxious. Your mom pushing a stroller, you're a senior citizen going to a doctor appointment,

You see someone who looks like they're not able to control themselves. You don't know that whether they're going to be fine or they're going to strike out and harm you or your child. So we wanted to make sure that everyone gets the care they need. So it's a whole system. Even someone who goes into the hospital for care, we're putting the responsibilities on hospitals to manage what happens after you leave. So people don't just keep cycling in and out and in and out. So that's an important part of it. But you hit on something that again, never is talked about.

maternal mental health. What happens when women have a child and your hormones are still out of whack and you're not getting enough sleep and you're so overwhelmed with everything and you don't want to complain because you feel it's a sign of weakness. You're supposed to put up with it. It's part of being a woman, part of being a mom.

I remember some dark days of just figuring out, I don't want to get out of bed. I can't handle this. I can't handle this, you know, this screaming baby. And then I had two pretty close to each other. There's two screaming babies, both in diapers. So we want to talk about how to get access to care for these women in particular and break down the stigma associated with asking for help. There is no shame.

in asking for help, whether you're a teenager, a mom. I'll tell you another area. We have law enforcement professionals, people that are in firefighters and police officers. They're never asking for help, and they really need it because they're exposed to some really dark things in society as well. So I think just talking about it, putting the money there, funding all kinds of programs, including supportive housing programs,

We were just able to successfully get 450 people who have been long-term homeless living on the New York City subways into supportive housing. They now have a roof over their heads and they're getting care in the same place. So that's how you start changing lives. That's how you start making our cities feel more stable and secure and reduce the sense of chaos. And I'm going to keep leaning into this and talking about it. And I hope other states will follow as well.

So often when we talk about mental health, we'll run into these occasions where mental health and law enforcement don't exactly mix. Do you have a plan to fund things like violence interrupters and social workers to be dispatched to calls rather than law enforcement when we know it might be a mental health issue? Where are we at on passing Daniel's law, which honors Daniel Prude and aims to make sure that mental health crises

are treated as public health issues and not as public safety threats. Right, right. And that's important. I know the incident that happened in Rochester was rather shocking. And it has to get through the both houses of the legislature, the assembly and the Senate to pass, and then it would come to my desk. But let me tell you what I'm doing in the meantime.

What I'm doing is putting another $20 million toward a program we started on the streets and in the subways. We call them SOS teams. These are healthcare professionals. They're counselors. They're a whole group of people who really...

develop a relationship with someone who's been long-term homeless. These are people who on their own are not going to leave the streets. It's all they know. They have mental health challenges. And instead of having to have law enforcement involved, we have people who get to know them. And it may take many, many months to have this relationship of trust because they don't trust people.

And we can get that relationship of trust, get them into care, get them medication, get them a therapist, get them housing. Now we're making the difference. And law enforcement does not have to be involved in that dynamic. That's really important to me. Only in extreme cases where there's obviously a direct threat to another individual, we have to have a different approach. That has to be part of what we do.

But again, there's other cases where it's not the right response and there can be really disastrous consequences, as you point out with Daniel's law. Fever, cough, congestion. When the symptoms keep coming, but you've got to keep going, you can rely on Mucinex Fast Max All-in-One. Just one dose of Mucinex Fast Max All-in-One relieves up to nine cold and flu symptoms, helping you get on with your day.

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Welcome back, friends. We're going to switch gears a little bit here from mental health and maternal health care to something else that is happening up here in Rochester, because you don't forget to talk to the governor of New York. I'm going to advocate for Western New York for all those times that I say I'm from New York and they go, what part of the city? So Rochester City, that's which part. So, Governor, what's your take on this?

I want to talk about the CHIPS Act. This is something that's coming down from the Biden administration and that we're getting a ton of investment here to build semiconductors and chips in western New York and in New York State. How does the CHIPS Act actually translate into jobs for New Yorkers? Is it like training opportunities or –

you know, is it like the $6 billion investment for the micron plant? Like talk to me about the chips act and what it means for, for regular folks here. Oh, I'm proud to do this because president Biden deserves so much credit for getting the chips and science acts through the Congress, a bipartisan bill, um,

Majority Leader Schumer was very involved in this. And what we're trying to do is bring the semiconductor industry back home. It was invented here. It was conceived here. But the manufacturing of these semiconductor pieces and everything you touch now has these chips in it. Your cell phone, your computer, it runs your vehicles. And so it's something that's critically important to our economy and our daily lives.

But if there's continuing to be manufactured in South Asia and Korea and other countries, then we're held captive to all kinds of circumstances. Remember during the pandemic, all those ships that were stuck in port and they had to stop manufacturing cars in Detroit. So the president's policy is correct, but

That means that companies will build and invest here in the U.S. How do we get them to New York is the next question. Literally days after Congress passed the CHIPS Act, we passed the CHIPS and Science Act, which is even better because it's the Green Chips Act, the Green Chips and Science Act, meaning that any assistance that we give has to be built with sustainability, sustainability,

They have to have zero emissions. We have to make sure that we're protecting our environment in these manufacturing. But the state of New York is putting $10 billion on the table to recruit these companies. And how they get it is for every employee they hire. And we're expecting 50,000 new jobs in upstate New York, which is astounding, astounding. That's a whole new community.

Yeah, we need them. We're excited about it. Because you know that there's been this hemorrhaging of manufacturing jobs since I was younger and we lost the steel plants and Bausch & Lomb and Eastman Kodak. You know the story. We're great at hard work and that sense of

wanting to build with our hands and make things. It's in our DNA as New Yorkers, but we lost that. So this is how we're bringing it back. The money goes, every job that's created, there's an assistance, there's a financial assistance to the company. So they don't get the money until the jobs actually come. Micron is the largest private sector investment in American history, $100 billion. It is going to transform everything.

the entire state, not just Buffalo, Rochester, Syracuse, but there'll be component parks manufactured from Long Island to New York City. But the part that's most exciting to me is that we are opening up opportunities for more women, more people of color to go into these jobs that have been traditionally, you know, the bro jobs, you know, you kind of get the stereotypical guy who's in those jobs. And these are great paying jobs.

I want that access to those jobs to be open to more people so we can lift more people out of their circumstances, let them enter not just the middle class, but go beyond, be able to pay for college for their kids. And it starts with teaching people the skills. So literally in the nine counties that surround where Mike Brown will be going, we're changing the curriculum in school.

to be able to focus more on coding and STEM programs so the workforce in that area will be even more educated. And Micron, in order to get assistance from us, has to build an on-site childcare. See what that means now? We're putting the responsibility on a company to say, I want more women in that workforce, and if they're moms, I want them to have a place to have their children taken care of so it'll make it easier on you to recruit them. But for me, it is...

It is critically important that if we're going to give you state assistance, that you have to actually live by some of the values we have, which is taking care of families, diversifying your workforce, more finding ways to make it all more equitable for people. So that's why I'm really proud of this. And there are many spinoff businesses that are coming from this opportunity. So this will change the upstate economy forever.

Yeah, because you get that you get the big shop. Right. But then you get like now we have more money for recreation up here. So it opens recreational businesses, more restaurants, more food carts, more whatever, more, more tourists, more tourists from the local area choosing to go to New York rather than Massachusetts or something else.

No, I mean, this is, it sounds really groundbreaking and also just like really great long-term planning, especially thinking about, you know, educating that community so that they don't want to go to New York City or have to go there to get a job and people can come back and it doesn't have to be like,

you know, I'm going back to my town, but there's not, you know, a job here for me, but there's a real economy around it and people want to go there and it becomes, you know, a thriving city. There are a lot of very charismatic governors across this country that are like, some of them are like celebrities, right? Like we could think of a couple that are like, you know, super rizzed up. How did you get them to come to New York, right? There had to be a ton of competition to get this to come to their state. And I'm just like, how'd you get in there and do it?

You know, I, I was, I'll tell you the story. I heard they were coming to take a look at a site, but they were more likely to go to a couple of other States. I think Texas was one of their top list. Okay. I'm very competitive. I grew up in Western New York and, you know, a little scrappy. My parents used to live in a trailer park. My dad worked at the steel plant for a long time. So, you know, you gotta, you gotta be competitive. And I'm a, I'm a football fan. You know that. So I, I went out there and treated this like a win I had to have. So I, I,

I flew during a snowstorm. I was told not to get on a plane from Albany to Syracuse to meet them, but I said, I'm getting on this plane and no matter what happens, I'm going to try and land this business.

I got there, I was supposed to have drinks with the CEO for about a half an hour, an hour. I ended up staying three hours. I sold them on many of the assets we have here in New York state, the caliber of our educational institutions, our universities, our SUNY system, our state system. We have the smartest people that are educated right here. The cost of living,

dramatically less in least upstate New York compared to other parts of the country. You can buy a home, which is so out of reach for other areas. I talked to them about the Finger Lakes wineries. I said, everybody likes Napa Valley.

They don't have the lakes that we have. So I literally was playing like a tour guide saying, no, people can go up to the racetrack at Saratoga. They can go for a football game. They can go up to a thousand islands and see a castle. So they were so captivated by what I sold them on for New York that we really started turning the corner and other barriers they had. I've made this a personal quest of mine. I constantly went to Washington to make sure they got the federal assistance they needed first. That had to be

approved before I could give them my assistance. You know, as Secretary of Commerce, Gina Raimondo, a former governor from Rhode Island, I have a great relationship with her. So I was constantly in her office saying, we've got to make this happen. So I was not going to lose.

And so I'm that aggressive with everything I want to do to help lift up New York and put us on a different path. So you don't need to be like a, you know, movie star caliber person. Just go out there and be scrappy and fight for it. And that's what I'm really proud of. A true New Yorker. Josh Allen, if you're listening, that's what we need you to do. We don't need celebrity. We need you to be scrappy.

and get out there and win. That's right. That's right. That's who we are. That's what's in our DNA as New Yorkers. You know, we're tough. That'll be tough, especially in my business. Definitely. One final question about winning the 2024 races. There are six New York House seats that you are working to flip. New York seats were surprisingly kind of consequential in the Republicans gaining the House in 2022. And this is despite the long-held assumptions that people's votes in New York don't count.

So can you tell us about the key races this year that you're looking at and how you and our audience can help support those candidates? I want to pick up on something you just said, though, Sam. People think their vote doesn't count. Please, I don't ever want to hear that again. Everything is on the line. We have Donald Trump visiting the Bronx today doing a rally in a short time.

We want to make sure that he hears loud and clear that we support women's rights in our states. We support the rights of the LGBTQ community in our state. We happen to think that freedom and democracy are worth protecting. We don't attack a capital. We don't try to overturn elections. We have very different values here in the state of New York, but if people don't show up and vote

then guess who wins in that scenario? Those who don't care about democracy, who don't care about women's rights, who don't care about all the rights that started right here in the state of New York. So these battleground seats are everything.

I served in Congress when we were in the minority. Republicans had control years ago when I was there. It is not fun. You cannot deliver for your district. You cannot lift up the issues that are so important that you need to. We need to have the majority. It comes through races on Long Island. I was out in Long Island today. It goes right through the Hudson Valley and over to Syracuse. That's where I'm raising money for. I'm trying to build messaging and what I could do in the state budget.

was to focus on issues that our candidates could run on, how we're protecting public safety, how we're focusing on child care and mental health issues. These are all Democratic values that when I can, as a leader of the state of New York, get accomplishments that they can run on for Congress as well and say, this is what Democrats do, then I'm contributing the way I need to as the leader of the party. You're not just the fundraising, but building the ground game as well.

helping our local county committees, doing that old-fashioned door-to-door the way I won in 14 elections over the last 30 years. I run all the time. It's about that personal connection. So everybody needs to care. You've got to give a damn. You just have to give a damn. And

And we have this expectation that, well, if I don't feel really excited about this person, if it's, oh my gosh, they just don't make my heart flutter. I'm sorry. Our country is worth fighting for no matter how you feel. It's all on the line this year. We have to make sure that Joe Biden wins overwhelmingly in New York within these seats for Congress.

This is everything because they are the firewall. They're the ones who can stop the bad legislation. They can stop a national ban on abortion, for example. We have to stop this. So I'm just begging everybody who'll listen.

mobilize, use your social media platforms to talk to people now. It's not too early to start saying, what are you doing to bring more people? Everybody should be personally responsible for finding 10 more votes to show up at election time and show that we are taking back our country. That's what's on the line here. Here.

Well said, Governor. Thank you for being with us today. I appreciate everything that you've said, and I especially appreciate what you're doing for upstate New York. Next, the lakes. We take the lakes back from Michigan thinking they own all the lakes, right? No, we've got the best lakes. No, the lakes are ours. We have the lakes. All right. Great talking to both of you. Thank you. That's it for us this week. Thank you again to Governor Hochul for being here with us. Until next time, I'm Bea Speer. I'm Sammy Sage. And this is American Fever Dream.

American Fever Dream is hosted by Vitus Spear and Sammy Sage. The show is produced by Rebecca Sous-McCatt, Jorge Morales-Picot, and Rebecca Steinberg. Editing by Rebecca Sous-McCatt. Social media by Bridget Schwartz. And be sure to follow Betches News on Instagram, Twitter, and TikTok. Betches.