We are honored to have Gary Belkin, MD, PhD, MPH, as our keynote speaker at the 2018 Washington State Mental Health Summit!

Dr. Belkin is the Executive Deputy Commissioner of Mental Hygiene in the New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene. Prior to that, Dr. Belkin was the Medical Director for Behavioral Health in the Health and Hospitals Corporation of the City of New York. Dr. Belkin also served as Chief of Psychiatry at Bellevue Hospital and has led huge progress on mental health service delivery systems and policy development in urban health settings. He believes that successes in mental health are the foundations for solidifying the workplace, creating secure neighborhoods, improving education outcome, and reducing healthcare burden.

As a top mental health officer, Dr. Belkin leads the ThriveNYC program which aims to make providing adequate mental health services a public health necessity. ThriveNYC now has 54 initiatives, guided by six principles: change the culture, act early, close treatment gaps, partner with communities, use data better, and strengthen government’s ability to lead. Progress made by ThriveNYC has proven the worthiness of government commitment and investment.

The path taken by ThriveNYC is invaluable to mental programs in Washington – not only does it provide insights on how to make our approaches more effective but also how to anticipate future obstacles.