As a social worker working on an acute psychiatric unit in The Bronx, I see every day how creative arts therapists make a profound difference in the lives of some of our city’s most vulnerable residents. It’s time for New York Gov. Kathy Hochul to make creative arts therapy accessible outside of the hospital, too, by signing S1001/A3391 into law [ https://www.nysenate.gov/legislation/bills/2025/S1001 ].

It’s easy to tell someone living with mental illness to “use their coping skills.” But for many of my patients, people who have cycled in and out of hospitals for years, those skills have never been taught, or they simply don’t work in the face of overwhelming trauma, addiction, or grief. That’s where creative arts therapy steps in.

Licensed creative arts therapists (LCATs) use art, mus

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