Youth mental health organization allcove is in danger of shutting down, following federal budget cuts that were reflected at a meeting on Oct. 28. Members of the community discussed the future of the program at an event held at the Palo Alto Art Center.
Many say allcove is a necessary resource for supporting youth mental health.
Allcove is a program providing free mental health resources to those between the ages of 12 and 25. With incoming cuts to Medicaid through the “One Big Beautiful Bill,” allcove’s existence and accessibility is in danger.
At the community meeting regarding the future of allcove, allcove leadership, a Stanford University psychology professor and allcove attendees addressed those gathered in-person and over a virtual call.
Allcove doesn’t charge for its services, so it relies entirely on government funding. An allcove representative at the meeting said that without this funding, the future of allcove is uncertain. There’s a risk of closure, which attendees argued could be detrimental to the mental health of youth.
“The Mental Health Service Act is becoming the behavioral health services act at the end of this fiscal year, and the categories in the way that we are meant to spend that funding are changing. … The prevention part of the Mental Health Services Act is actually being taken away from counties,” an allcove representative explained in the discussion.
Shasank Joshi, a doctor and professor at the Stanford School of Medicine, believes that the closure of the allcove program has deeper connections to what modern society views of youth mental health.
“If we were to close allcove now, we would not just be closing a building,” Joshi said. “We’d be silencing a model of hope that young people have built from the ground up.”
Specifically in Palo Alto, the city’s high schools have historically had issues with youth mental health and suicides. Palo Alto High School Alumni Tess Manjarrez said that restricting access to mental health programs in the area could have detrimental effects on the student body.
“I went to Paly between 2015 and 2019. … I don’t think there was anyone at Paly or Gunn who was more than two degrees separated from someone that took their own life,” Manjarrez said.
Kylie, a former member of the San Jose Palo Alto Youth Advisory Group, agreed that allcove and other accessible mental health services are important for young people.
“Every single year I get a text from someone saying, ‘did you hear? Did you hear what happened?’ Every single year, without fail,” Kylie said. “This is not a service to cut.”