New York’s First Lady visits VA to encourage veterans

March 19, 2015 By Paula Katinas Brooklyn Daily Eagle

The city’s First Lady, Chirlane McCray (third from left) visits with veterans taking part in the VA’s Recreational Art Therapy Program. At right is New York City Veterans Affairs Commissioner Loree Sutton. Eagle photo by Paula Katinas

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New York City’s First Lady, Chirlane McCray, who has made it her mission during her husband’s mayoralty to speak out on mental health issues, paid a visit to the Veteran Administration’s New York Harbor Healthcare System in Bay Ridge on Thursday to congratulate veterans taking part in an art therapy program there.

McCray’s visit to the veterans hospital at 800 Poly Place was part of #ShattertheStigma, her five-borough effort aimed at drawing attention to mental health issues and highlighting successful treatment programs helping patients.

During her whirlwind visit, McCray toured an art gallery housed in an office building on the hospital’s sprawling campus and viewed “Portraits of a Veteran,” a special exhibition of photographs of veterans that were taken by other veterans.

She also met with the program’s participants and with VA staff members.

The VA Recreational Art Therapy Program seeks to help veterans develop skills to enhance their quality of life, officials said. The program’s aim is to reduce depression, anxiety, isolation and low self-esteem and to help the participants become re-integrated back into the community.

The First Lady was joined on the visit by New York City Veterans’ Affairs Commissioner Loree Sutton. Beryl Brenner, the hospital’s creative arts therapist, served as the tour guide.

McCray did not speak to reporters during the visit.

Following the visit to the art gallery, McCray traveled to the 16th floor in the main hospital building, where the Art Therapy program is housed, and met privately for a few minutes with a small group of veterans. The veterans showed the city’s First Lady artwork that they had created. One of the veterans presented McCray with a bookmark that she had caved out of wood.

The program’s participants paint, take photos, carve wood and work with clay to express their creativity.

McCray had announced last year, shortly after her husband Bill de Blasio was sworn in as mayor, that she would devote much of her time to speaking out about mental health issues. In one interview, she revealed that their daughter Chiara had struggled with depression. McCray has stated that her goal is to remove the stigma associated with mental illness.

In January, the New York Observer reported that McCray, as head of the Mayor’s Fund to Advance New York City, a non-profit program that seeks to obtain private funding for initiatives, will start a new effort this summer aimed at dealing with mental health as a public health crisis. She described the initiative as “a roadmap,” the Observer reported.