Resilience Psychiatry Builds on Minority Mental Health Month, Expands NY Access Press Services

Beyond Minority Mental Health Month: How Telepsychiatry Expands Access Across New York

Setauket- East Setauket, United States - August 23, 2026 / Resilience Psychiatry /

Following National Minority Mental Health Awareness Month in July, Resilience Psychiatry is continuing to draw attention to a gap that researchers have documented for years. Many people who need mental health care still cannot reach it, and the barriers are steepest for communities of color. The East Setauket, New York practice is continuing the conversation about those barriers and pointing to a practical tool that helps narrow them: telepsychiatry available to people across New York.

National Minority Mental Health Awareness Month was designated by the U.S. House of Representatives in 2008 to bring attention to the mental health challenges faced by racial and ethnic minority communities. Nearly two decades later, the disparities it was created to address remain measurable. In the federal government's 2023 National Survey on Drug Use and Health, among adults with any mental illness, 58.7 percent of White adults received mental health treatment in the past year, compared with 47.4 percent of Hispanic adults, 43.8 percent of Black adults, and 34.7 percent of Asian adults. Difficulty finding a mental health professional who understands a person's background is a recurring barrier, and many people report that they did not know how to find care or felt afraid or embarrassed to seek it.

Access is not only a matter of trust and familiarity. It is also a matter of supply. According to KFF's analysis of federal data, about 137 million Americans, roughly 40 percent of the population, live in a designated Mental Health Professional Shortage Area, and only about 27 percent of the need in those areas is currently met. When mental health professionals are scarce, the people with the fewest resources to travel, take time off, or navigate the system are often the last to be seen.

Why telepsychiatry matters for access

Telepsychiatry, meaning psychiatric care delivered through secure video visits, removes several of the practical obstacles that keep people from starting or continuing treatment. There is no commute, no waiting room, and more flexibility to fit an appointment around work, school, caregiving, or transportation limits. For someone in a part of New York with few local psychiatrists, a video visit can be the difference between getting evidence-based care and going without.

"When we talk about disparities in mental health, we are really talking about who gets to sit across from a psychiatrist or therapist and who does not," said Dr. Ricardo Cáceda, MD, PhD, board-certified psychiatrist and founder of Resilience Psychiatry. "Telepsychiatry does not remove every barrier, but it removes some of the most persistent ones: distance, time, and the long wait for an open appointment. Our goal is to make it easier for a person to take that first step and stay connected to care over time."

Resilience Psychiatry offers telepsychiatry to people throughout New York State, extending its reach well beyond its home base on Long Island. That matters for regions such as the Hudson Valley and Westchester County, where demand for psychiatric care often outpaces the number of local psychiatrists. Through video visits, adults, teenagers, and children in those communities can connect with the same evidence-based evaluation, medication management, and therapy the practice provides in person.

Care built around the whole person

Resilience Psychiatry provides care for a range of conditions, including anxiety, depression, ADHD, OCD, and PTSD, across the lifespan. The practice emphasizes evidence-based treatment delivered with cultural sensitivity, an approach that is especially relevant to the issues highlighted during National Minority Mental Health Awareness Month and to communities that have historically been underserved and, at times, misdiagnosed.

"Good psychiatric care starts with listening, and listening well means understanding the context a person lives in: their family, their culture, the stresses they carry," said Dr. Cáceda. "A person who experiences depression is not a diagnosis on a chart. Awareness months are valuable because they remind those of us in this field to keep asking whether the people who need us most can actually get to us."

The practice encourages anyone who is unsure whether they might benefit from care to speak with a psychiatrist or therapist rather than try to self-diagnose. An initial psychiatric evaluation is designed to understand what a person is experiencing and to discuss options collaboratively, with no assumption about what treatment, if any, will follow.

Getting started

New and returning patients can learn more about telepsychiatry appointments, insurance, and what to expect at a first visit through Resilience Psychiatry's telepsychiatry program for New Yorkers. The practice serves patients across New York and, through telehealth, residents of Florida as well.

A note on crisis support: A press release and a psychiatric practice are not emergency services. If you or someone you know is experiencing a mental health crisis or thoughts of self-harm, call or text 988 to reach the 988 Suicide and Crisis Lifeline, available 24 hours a day, or call 911 in an emergency.

About Resilience Psychiatry

Resilience Psychiatry, P.C. is an outpatient psychiatry practice based in East Setauket, New York, providing evidence-based, compassionate care for adults, teens, and children experiencing anxiety, depression, ADHD, OCD, PTSD, and related conditions. Services include psychiatric evaluation, medication management, psychotherapy, and telepsychiatry for patients across New York and Florida. The practice is led by board-certified psychiatrists Dr. Ricardo Cáceda, MD, PhD and Dr. Jessica Carbajal Cáceda, MD. The clinical team also includes Dr. Rachel Spector, MD and Alyssa Wolfe, LMSW. Learn more at resilience-psychiatry.com.