| Senator Samra G. Brouk represents the residents of New York's 55th District in Monroe County, including East and West Irondequoit, Webster, Penfield, Perinton, Fairport, Pittsford, East Rochester, and the eastern portion of the City of Rochester.
Senator Brouk serves as Chair of the Senate Mental Health Committee and is working to revolutionize New York State's mental health and substance abuse crisis response so that those in need receive compassionate, therapeutic care. "Daniel's Law" S2398 passed the Senate Mental Health Committee in 2024.
In her first term, the Senator passed legislation to create a 9-8-8 substance abuse and mental health crisis lifeline, improve maternal mental health screenings, and maintain diagnostic authority for thousands of mental health practitioners. She has also passed Budgets that invest in our mental health workforce, delivering the first COLAs (Cost of Living Adjustment) in over a decade. In her second term, the Senator passed legislation to create the Student Lifeline Act, to authorize Licensed Creative Arts Therapists (LCAT) to bill Medicaid for their services, to establish a Black Youth Suicide Prevention Task Force, and to provide for the licensure of school psychologists.
Additionally, Senator Brouk has introduced mental health legislation to create a statewide Youth Mental Health Advisory Board; to provide telehealth mental health services to children, adolescent and young adults; to make services and care for youth by school psychologists eligible for Medicaid; to evaluate the work of Comprehensive Psychiatric Emergency Programs (CPEPs); to establish a pilot program to support the retention and recruitment of licensed clinical social workers; to establish a school-based mental health loan repayment program to aid youth mental health practitioners; and to add fetal alcohol spectrum disorders to the definition of developmental disability.
Senator Brouk has long championed expanding access to doula care as a way to address New York's maternal health crisis. She is working to improve the racially disparate maternal health outcomes in our community and state, and sponsors legislation to make it easier to access the emotional, physical and informational support provided by birth doulas. Her doula legislation includes- to establish a doula Medicaid reimbursement work group (S1876), to establish a community doula directory (S1867A), to create a community doula expansion grant program (S7779A), to address the need for doula friendly policies in healthcare facilities (S7780A), and to direct the Commissioner of Health to issue a standing order for the provision of doula services (S8395).
Senator Brouk is focused on supporting our families. She has delivered the largest aid increase ever to our schools, securing over a billion dollars of school aid for SD-55. She is helping hardworking families get ahead- fighting proposed energy rate hikes; making state government more transparent, accessible and accountable; and ensuring that our communities have the resources to safely sustain and enrich our families from before birth to old age.
She has introduced legislation to address access to child care and to ensure public health insurance coverage for all children eligible from 0 to 6 years old; to address elder abuse, improved mental health care for the geriatric population, and aging in place in mental health housing; and legislation to enact the Bank of Rochester Act.
Senator Brouk was born and raised in the City of Rochester and surrounding suburbs before earning her B.A. in Psychology at Williams College. Before her election to the Senate, Senator Brouk's dedication to public service led her to join the United States Peace Corps, working as a health educator in rural Guatemala. And as a leader in non-profit community development, she spent a decade building educational, environmental, and senior services initiatives in her own community and across New York State. |