County to restore mental health services in L.B.

Mangano calls for re-establishment of clinic closed since Sandy

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More than two and a half years after the Long Beach Medical Center was shuttered by Hurricane Sandy, Nassau County Executive Ed Mangano announced on May 26 that the county is working to re-establish mental health services in Long Beach.

Such services have been lacking in the community since the storm damaged a clinic that was operated by LBMC. Earlier this year, the county’s Office of Mental Health secured $2.7 million in state funding to re-establish those services in Long Beach and as well as several other projects in Nassau aimed at serving residents with mental illness. The state’s Office of Mental Health is reinvesting money that had been used to support the psychiatric units at the former Long Beach Medical and the closed Glen Cove Hospital, according to the county.

“My administration is committed to ensuring that residents of Long Beach and surrounding communities have easy access to behavioral health care,” Mangano said in a statement. “I’m proud that we could help restore these critical resources lost in Superstorm Sandy.”

The county issued a request for information last month to state licensed treatment agencies with experience in providing behavioral health services. The chosen program would receive ongoing net deficit funding of $200,000 per year.

“We received applications from four agencies and we expect to make the award before the end of this week,” Dr. James Dolan, assistant to the commissioner for Mental Health Services, told the Herald on Wednesday.

He added that the clinic could potentially be located elsewhere in Long Beach, and not necessarily on the grounds of the former LBMC.

Nevertheless, South Nassau Communities Hospital, which acquired LBMC last year, was among those that entered a bid, according to SNCH Senior Vice President of Communications Joe Calderone.

“We did put in a proposal, and it is for a satellite location in Long Beach in the vicinity of the former Long Beach Medical Center,” he said.

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