By: By Hector Flores
During a town-hall meeting last week sponsored by Nassau County Legislator David Denenberg, members of the newly formed Bellmore-Merrick Parents for Change and other residents demanded that the Central High School District provide greater mental-health services for students.
Denenberg (D-Merrick) gathered nine local, county and state youth-service agencies at Merrick Avenue Middle School on Dec. 16 to explain the services that they provide. The agencies included the Nassau County Department of Mental Health, Nassau County Youth Board, Nassau County Police Department, New York State Center for School Safety, Tempo Group, Long Island Crisis Center, Freeport Pride, Wantagh Foundation for Educational Excellence and the Southeast Nassau Guidance Center.
Anne Marie Maiorana, of Merrick, said, I lost my daughter to suicide. There is not enough education on this issue, and there is still a taboo on this subject. We can read books that illustrate suicides, but there is not enough on prevention .
A member of Bellmore-Merrick Parents for Change, who did not wish to be identified, asked what, if anything, the Central High School District is doing to reach out to and aid families and students who were indirectly affected, and perhaps traumatized, by the sexual assaults that were carried out at a Mepham High School football camp in August.
The kids who have been involved are being treated, the woman said. But how about the kids and parents who need assistance? They are bombarded with stories, and they are not given aid to cope with the issues. Very little has been done to outreach to the community .
Barry Wilansky, executive director of the private, non-profit Tempo Group, whose clinic is at the Central District's Brookside School, said mental health isn't a district specialty, but he hopes that will soon change. I think that right now we are in a position for change and in the climate for change, he said.
Denenberg said he convened the town-hall meeting in part to make people aware of the services that are available. He noted that Nassau County recently increased spending for youth services by $500,000, but many youth agencies remain financially strapped because of past funding cuts by the county and state. The legislator said, We must save these services and use them whenever possible."
Wilansky, whose Tempo Group agency provides drug and alcohol counseling for teenagers in Bellmore-Merrick, said there are many highly skilled mental-health professionals at work throughout the county, but they face hurdles in providing services. There are two reasons why some of the services don't work, he said. For one thing, serving community kids is a shared effort of the community. And the second reason it doesn't work is because of the lack of funding. The fair share of money doesn't make it into social services .
Howard Sovronsky, commissioner of the county's Department of Mental Health, said, For the last two years, exciting things have happened in the county." Denenberg's meeting, he noted, was "the first time each agency has been able to sit together and come up with solutions to solve community problems together .
Sovronsky added that at the county, We have great trauma expertise. We have a mobile children's crisis team that goes to homes, schools, courts and responds to a child's mental needs .
George Siberon, the county's Youth Board director, explained that his agency doesn't provide services. We get grants for the county and go into a partnership with the local community agency," he said. "Our funding provides the means in which the agencies can go about dealing with tutoring, counseling, and leadership training."
The director added that the county is looking for ways to spend the additional $500,000 that it has allocated for youth services. We want to be able to form a collective so we can solve the problems our communities face, and I want to see if valuable programs can be brought into the schools," he said.
Linda Leonard, executive director of the Bellmore-based Long Island Crisis Center, said her agency provides suicide-prevention services. Additionally, the center sends community educators to schools to conduct suicide- and depression-prevention workshops.
Leonard said that some 80 percent of young adults who take their own lives tell someone beforehand or leave clues. Crisis Center workshops teach teenagers what they can do to prevent suicide among their peers and adults by examining causes, recognizing signs and providing resources to help.
