(New York, NY – November 2022) The country’s leading non-profit dedicated to advanced depression research, Hope for Depression Research Foundation (HDRF), held its 16th annual HOPE luncheon seminar at The Plaza Hotel. The seminar focused on “Teenagers and Depression: Addressing the Youth Mental Health Crisis” and research highlights from the HDRF’s renowned Depression Task Force. The event drew nearly 300 guests and raised over $500,000 for life-saving mental health research.
The day concluded with a touching award ceremony, where Gold Medalist Aly Raisman received the 2022 HOPE Award for Depression Advocacy and Jamee and Peter Gregory accepted the HOPE Community Award.
Master of Ceremonies, Chuck Scarborough began by welcoming guests and spoke about the anxiety that came with the midterm elections and the continued levels of stress induced by the pandemic. He noted that the COVID-19 pandemic highlighted the need to address mental health issues across all ages, but especially among teens. After stating the goal of the luncheon was to inspire the audience to talk about mental health within their communities, he introduced HDRF Founder and Chair Audrey Gruss. He stated, “Audrey has been ahead of the curve in mental health for a long time. The pandemic brought mental health to the forefront, Audrey has been talking about it, raising awareness, and building research teams for the last 16 years.”
Gruss took to the podium to discuss the shocking statistics of depression among children and adolescents. She noted that last December, the U.S. Surgeon General declared an emergency in children and adolescent mental health. She stated, “Today, over 40% of teenagers state that they struggle with persistent feelings of sadness and hopelessness.” She spoke about how most adolescents with depression neither told a healthcare professional nor received proper treatment. One of the most staggering statistics she highlighted was that 4,000 teenagers a day attempt suicide.
The medical keynote speaker, Dr. Angela Diaz, Professor in Adolescent Health at the Mount Sinai School of Medicine and Director at Mount Sinai Adolescent Health Center, delivered the keynote speech. First, she shared the staggering statistics. In 2021 the CDC said that more than a third of high school students reportedly experienced poor mental health during the COVID-19 pandemic. Dr. Diaz noted that at the height of the pandemic in May 2020 she conducted a monthly survey at the Mount Sinai Adolescent Health Center and found one-third of her patients were clinically depressed. This represented a 20% increase from before the pandemic. She went on to state that depression is very common in the overall population, and that 20% of major depressive disorders start during adolescence with 4- 8% having the disorder. She spoke about the signs of depression in teens and what one can do to help. Dr. Diaz shared a video of one of her patients, who spoke about her major depression at the age of 17. Diaz herself also shared her own touching story. She spoke about being an immigrant from the Dominican Republic and living in extreme poverty, with no access to medical or mental health care. At the height of her depression, Dr. Diaz went to the Mount Sinai Adolescent Center, where she received treatment and support that enabled her to go back to high school and ultimately become a physician and a pediatrician. Now, she is the director at the same center that saved her life as a teen. She ended with a message for the audience “That is why it’s so critical to stay in touch with your teens, with young people, try to identify their depression and make sure they get the right interventions at the proper moment so that we can really try to prevent all those things that we see with young people.”
HDRF Executive DirectorLouisa Benton spoke about how the Hope for Depression Research Foundation has built national awareness. She highlighted the recent HDRF symposium on Teen Mental Health in Palm Beach, which attracted top-tier media attention and was attended by an audience of 150 teens, parents and teachers. She stated that HDRF’s Race of Hope, a 5K Run/Walk in Palm Beach, FL in the winter and Southampton, NY in the summer, together raised nearly one million dollars. She noted that last month HDRF launched their New York City Junior Committee at Doubles with Chair Elizabeth Meigher. She also called out Hayden Lucas, a sophomore in high school who attended the seminar with his mental health club. Lucas will lead the Teen Task Force at Hope for Depression Research Foundation, with plans to set up the inaugural Teen Walk of Hope for city high schools in New York next year in May 2023.
Benton went on to discuss the incredible research breakthroughs of the HDRF Depression Task Force. The Task Force is leading the field in the study of brain circuits and molecules that underlie depression, Benton said. As a result, HDRF has a brand-new category of medication now in pilot clinical trials at Mount Sinai and Columbia, with a new site recently added at Stanford University.
The potential new medication being tested works differently than the common SSRI medications available today, Benton stated. HDRF scientists believe this new medication will help an entire segment of depressed patients who have not responded to these common SSRI medications. That is because the potential new medication works on different molecules and circuits that the Depression Task Force recently discovered to be important in depression.
Benton also introduced Dr. Jonathan Javitch, a psychopharmacologist from Columbia University, who is on the Depression Task Force, and whose research led to the trial. He said: “Advances in technology are making it possible to identify, treat and track the signs of depression more precisely than ever before.”
Dr. Javitch added, “We are finally able to imagine an era of precision medicine, precision psychiatry, where we can actually give a patient a treatment that is specific to the underlying biology of their depression.”
Jamee and Peter Gregory accepted the 2022HOPE Community Award for their unwavering commitment to spreading mental health awareness and supporting HDRF since its inception in 2006. Jamee and Peter joined the HDRF leadership committee and co-chaired some of the foundation’s inaugural events. Jamee served as a Grand Marshal of the Race of Hope in Southampton 2020 and Peter is a founding member of HDRF’s advisory board. Last year, the pair made a transformative gift of nearly a million dollars to the foundation’s New Treatment Initiative. Their grant is funding a critical study at Columbia Medical School to illuminate the link between Parsons Disease and Depression and can lead to a new treatment for depression specific to Parkinson’s patients. Peter said, “I’m convinced that the Hope for Depression Research Foundation is going to be at the forefront of wonderful new discoveries, which hopefully, maybe not in my lifetime, but I hope in my daughter’s lifetime will alleviate this horrible disease and make it something of the past.”
Audrey Gruss then presented Aly Raisman with the HOPE Award for Depression Advocacy. “And now I’d like to introduce someone of outstanding poise and courage,” she said. “Aly Raisman is a champion leader on and off the mat. Aly was the team captain of the gold medal-winning women’s gymnastics team in 2012 and 2016, and she’s the third most decorated American gymnast of all time. Aly used her fame as a platform to be open about her struggles with anxiety, depression, and PTSD, and to spread hope and understanding.”
Aly Raisman took the stage to speak about her struggles with depression and anxiety.
Aly spoke about competing in the Olympics and the pressure to compete again, feeling like it was never enough. She continued: “I knew that I was struggling behind the scenes with being a survivor of abuse and going through my own mental health struggles. I also was struggling with, have I done enough? Is it okay that I don’t want to do gymnastics anymore?”
She noted having anxiety at a very early age and remembered being anxious, wanting to be with her parents and afraid to go to sleep at night, but never talking about it. She said: “I think that my anxiety got worse because gymnastics is one of those sports where you’re striving for perfection, and you’re taught from a very young age that no matter how well your beam or floor routine was, it didn’t really matter.”
She talked about her journey to feeling better and the importance of understanding one’s triggers. She said, “That’s why I can’t stress enough the importance of talking about mental health in schools, in sports, so that kids can ask these important questions, even if they are not sure…Because without creating a safe environment, where kids feel they can ask questions, the problem is going to continue to perpetuate.”
She went on to speak about how anxiety can feel like reality when it’s not, and the importance of having a community and a safe place where somebody — whether a therapist or a friend — can remind you of your worth. She talked about sharing her story as a survivor of sexual abuse, feeling triggered when people would try to ask her invasive questions.
Aly concluded: “You don’t have to have all the answers if someone comes to you, or you want to ask your child or another person if they’re okay. Just know that just being there and showing up and asking them what they need will go such a long way.”
Each year, the HOPE Luncheon Seminar is held at the Plaza Hotel in New York City and is attended by over 300 top New York philanthropists, asset managers, business and media professionals, socialites, and celebrities who gather to raise awareness about depression and its related mood disorders as well as funds for continued research.
The Luncheon Seminar Co-chairs were: Susan Gutfreund, Maru Hagerty, Kim Heirston, Tania Higgins, Eleanora Kennedy, Margo Langenberg, Susan R. McCaw, Kitty and Bill McKnight, Peter S. Paine III, Nancy Silverman, Barbara and Randall Smith and Scott Snyder.
Junior Committee Tickets: Caroline Allen, Ronit Berkman, Kelly Buckner, Laura Hanson, Kathryn McCrary, Ross Moseley, Mona Nasser, Elizabeth Record and Whitney Ross
NYC HDRF Junior Committee Chair: Elizabeth Meigher
Junior Committee Co-Chairs: Krista & James Corl, Lindsay Creedon, Gillian Hearst, Meghan & Adam Klopp, Harrison LeFrak, Avery McCann, Stacey Pashcow, Nicole Hanley Pickett, Lila Remez, Sofia Remez, Lara & Claude Shaw, Mary Snow and Stephanie A. Sirota
Junior Committee Members: Joanna Baker de Neufville, Clementine Goutal, Callie Baker Holt, Julia Kingsley, Elizabeth Kurpis, Amanda & Ted Mariner, Lizzi Bickford Meadow & Todd Meadow, Isabella Meyer, Brooke Kelly Murray & Patrick Murray, Tatiana G.P. Perkin and Whitney Lovell Schott
Founder Sponsors: EGL Charitable Foundation, William Flaherty and Nancy Silverman
Benefactor Sponsors: Abraham Fuchsberg Family Foundation, The Richard and Karen LeFrak Foundation and Paulson Family Foundation
Diamond Sponsors: FINDLAY Galleries/James R. Borynack and Adolfo Zaralegui, Susan R. McCaw, Barbara & Randall Smith
Patron Donors: Nancy and Edmund M. Dunst / HUB International Northeast, Ganek Family Foundation, Trish Figge Glowacki/GlowMedia Project, Felicia Taylor Gottsegen, Susan Gutfreund, Maru M. Hagerty, Gillian Hearst, Kim Heirston, Tania Higgins, Eleanora Kennedy, Howard Kessler, Margo Langenberg, Judy & Leonard Lauder, Kitty & Bill McKnight, Peter S. Paine III, Thomas C. Quick, Scott Snyder and Lynne Wheat
Friend Donors: Bloomberg Philanthropies, Laura Louise Breyer, Jackie Weld Drake, Pat Frigge, The Honorable David Fischer & Jennifer Fischer, Mary Ann Fribourg, Dr. Sharon Giese, Sheila & Robert Josephberg, Florence Kaufman, Kristen Maltese Krusen, Lundbeck, David B. Lynch Foundation, The Honorable & Mrs. Earle I. Mack, Ambassador Bonnie McElveen-Hunter, Garrett Moran & Mary Penniman Family Foundation, Stacey Pashcow, Liz Peek, Pauline Pitt and Katharine Rayner.
Gold Level Donors: Acquavella Family Foundation, Carl B. Adams, Catherine Adler, Meredith Aman, Suzanne & Mark Antilety, Muffie Potter Aston, Paola Bacchini, Mrs. Barbara Bancroft, Felice & Shelley Bergman, Bruce Bierman, Kimberly Bitterman, CeCe Black, Geoffrey N. Bradfield, Janna Bullock, Joanna Carson, Myron Cohen / Federman Steifman LLC, Caroline Coleman, Amy Coley, Pilar Crespi, Gus N. Davis, Bonnie Pfeifer Evans, Deborah Farrington, Marjorie S. Federbush, Ginger Feuer Firmenich Inc., Helen S. Fitzgerald, Mary Alice Fortin Foundation, Lionel Geneste, Jillian & David Gilmour, Barbara & Alan Glatt, Joanna Goldenstein, Adrienne Gordon, Mai Hallingby Harrison, Carolyn Ryan Healy, Linda Hickox, Ashley Hoffman, Mariana Zoullas Kaufman, Karen Klopp, Miyoung Lee, Kamie Lightburn, Christine Mack, Ann & Cameron MacRae, Kristina Grimm McCooey, Heidi McWilliams, Grace Meigher, Muffy & Donald Miller, Marcia Mishaan, Michael Kahn & Charles Mitchem, Carole O. Moran, Diana Morrison, Sharon Bush & Robert Murray, Anne S. Nordeman, Jane & Richard Novick, Constance M. Paine, Pamela & Edward Pantzer, Marina Pellecchi, Kathy Prounis, Michele Rella, Darcy Rigas, Barbara Robinson, Joanna Roland, Hilary Geary Ross, Julia Ryan, Frances G. Scaife, Nancy Schaffel, Jane Scheinfeld, Catherine Baxter Sidamon-Eristoff, Southampton Hospital Foundation, Allison Stern, Ginny & David Sydorick, Roxanne G. Taylor, Elizabeth Thompson, Barbara Tober, Ann Van Ness, Barbara Winston, Douglas C. Wright III, Clelia Zacharias, Richard Ziegelasch, David Zislin and Silvia Zoullas.
Gift Bag Sponsors: Compendium,Eric Javits Inc., The Estée Lauder Companies Inc., Hope Fragrances, Lucia Hwong Gordon, Noshinku and Purist.
About Hope for Depression Research Foundation:
Audrey Gruss founded HDRF in 2006 in memory of her mother Hope, who struggled with clinical depression. Today, HDRF is the leading nonprofit organization focused solely on advanced depression research into new and better treatments for the illness. The World Health Organization has declared depression as the leading cause of disability worldwide, and yet conventional medications today are outdated and do not fully work for 50% of patients. The mission of the HDRF is to spur innovative neuroscience research into the origins, medical diagnosis, new treatments, and prevention of depression and its related mood disorders – bipolar disorder, postpartum depression, post-traumatic stress disorder, anxiety disorder, and suicide. To date, HDRF has provided more than $45 million through over 200 grants for breakthrough depression research that promises to transform the way depression is viewed, diagnosed, treated and prevented. Currently, HDRF has a potential new class of medication in pilot clinical trials at Mount Sinai Medical Center, Columbia University, and Stanford University.
