Long Beach, NY - May 26, 2015 - Nassau County Executive Edward P. Mangano today announced that Nassau County is in the process of re-establishing a mental health clinic in Long Beach, which has been without such a facility since Superstorm Sandy in 2012.
The Nassau County Office of Mental Health issued a Request for Information (RFI) earlier this month to state licensed treatment agencies with experience in providing behavioral health services. By close of business on May 29th, all interested agencies must submit a narrative description of proposed services; a staffing plan; a prorated 2015 budget and a full annualized budget. The chosen program would receive ongoing net deficit funding of $200,000 per year.
“My administration is committed to ensuring that residents of Long Beach and surrounding communities have easy access to behavioral health care,” said County Executive Mangano. “I’m proud that we could help restore these critical resources lost in Superstorm Sandy.”
Earlier this year, Nassau County secured $2.7 million in state funding to not only re-establish Long Beach’s storm-damaged mental health clinic, but also to fund several projects aimed at serving residents with mental illness. The State Office of Mental Health is reinvesting money into the community that had been used to support the psychiatric units at Long Beach Medical Center and Glen Cove Hospital, which are now closed. The Mangano administration sought these funds to address serious gaps in the mental health system.
The grant awarded by the New York State Office of Mental Health to Nassau County in 2015 will also provide: Mobile Residential Support Teams to assist residents with mental illness in the community; On-site Rehabilitation Programs to assist residents with mental illness in developing skills that promote independent living; funding to enable the North Shore Child and Family Guidance Center and Central Nassau Guidance and Counseling Center to develop urgent care capacity at their mental health clinics, and Nassau University Medical Center to support and advocate for the families, and their child, who may be in the Emergency Room or the Child Inpatient Unit.
Additionally, the Mangano administration secured $295,000 annually for the City of Long Beach’s local prevention agency, entitled Long Beach Aware. These funds will be used to provide awareness and education to residents and the community about the dangers of substance abuse and to assist residents in identifying healthy alternatives to substance abuse.