Counseling center extends reach

The mental health service provider that took over operations at the former Peninsula Counseling Center in March is looking to expand the center’s reach and its impact in Nassau County, according to the facility’s new management.

“We want to keep the community’s needs addressed, because if it were closed, it would be disastrous,” said Herrick Lipton, CEO of New Horizon Counseling Center in Valley Stream.

Peninsula Counseling Center would have done just that had the facility and its operations not been awarded to New Horizon Counseling Center by the state and Nassau County when PCC ran into trouble. NHCC declined to say what that trouble was, but acknowledged that a restructuring had been needed.

NHCC started in Ozone Park in 1980 and developed clinics in the Rockaways. The provider’s mission was to provide mental health services in underserved communities that needed them, according to Flora Bienstock, the Valley Stream location’s chief clinical officer. The state had closed its mental hospitals, and patients suffering from a range of mental illnesses suddenly found themselves trying to function in society on their own.

In addressing those urgent needs, NHCC established a model of identifying the underserved and offering them services. In the past two years, Bienstock said, a lack of services for the developmentally disabled became apparent, so NHCC set up programs that would “help clients function to their optimal level.”

While NHCC already served clients in Nassau County, its acquisition of PCC, the largest mental health service provider in the county, established its first physical footprint. That came with the county’s only remaining day program for people with developmental disabilities, which offers a “full gamut” of services, Bienstock said.

Since the acquisition, the center claims it has sped up the process for getting appointments, met with other providers in the area and increased its hours of operation.

Ninety-five percent of PCC’s employees were retained, Lipton said, and more were hired from local communities. The center now has more than 200 staff members, according to Lipton and Bienstock, who both live in Nassau County. They said they work closely together to ensure that the center remains fiscally sound.

Bienstock said that to be effective, services have to be accessible to families in need, so rates are determined on a sliding scale and the center accepts all insurance plans, including Medicaid. It also provides a full continuum of care for clients as they age, treating children 5 and older and offering services for adolescents, teens and adults.

One of the new management’s initiatives was to form an outreach team that connected with local schools. Bienstock said that students with issues that go untreated could get worse. She estimated that 80 to 85 percent of families are not aware of the services that are available, which include parenting and other groups that can help decrease clients’ feelings of isolation. Bienstock said that the services provided before NHCC took the reins were more fragmented, and are now more focused and cohesive.

The center provides art therapy, which Bienstock said is helpful for children who don’t vocalize well or are treatment-resistant, as well as substance-abuse services. She said the center is looking at ways to grow that program, which serves more than 200 people, and to expand hours and access for all ages.

The center was one of two in the county to receive $50,000 in grant money from the Town of Hempstead in July. The funds, which were secured through federal Community Development Block Grant funding, were meant to boost NHCC’s addiction counseling services in response to the rising rates of heroin use and overdose in Nassau County. The Yes Counseling Center of Levittown received the same sum.

Deaths from heroin overdoses increased by 38 percent between 2011 and 2014, according to the Nassau County Heroin Prevention Task Force.

“Taking on the troubling heroin epidemic is an important task, and it starts by supporting those who mentor and serve the youth of our communities,” said Town of Hempstead Supervisor Kate Murray. “However, as heroin-related deaths continue to rise, it’s also essential to provide counseling and rehabilitation services to those struggling with drug addiction. We know that our support will play a role in assisting neighbors in reversing this disturbing trend.”

The center also provides a full spectrum of care for people with Alzeimer’s, as well as support for their caregivers.

“We’re very excited about being here,” Bienstock said. “We’re very eager to continue offering these services to this community.”