by North Shore Child & Family Guidance Center | Apr 11, 2015 | In The Media
By LAURA FIGUEROA laura.figueroa@newsday.com
Increasing numbers of nonprofit mental health clinics on Long Island are closing or being sold to other mental health networks, following years of declines in government funding and a growing demand for services.
In the past four years, at least four clinics have closed in Nassau and Suffolk, including one already closed and one about to close this year. Another four clinics have been acquired by other nonprofits.
The closures have prompted several local social service advocates to ramp up fundraising efforts while lobbying for increases in government aid. They say treatment options are dwindling for low- and middle-income patients who earn too much to qualify for Medicaid.
“There is somewhat of a crisis in the system,” said Jeffrey Steigman, chief administrative officer of the nonprofit Family Service League, of Huntington, which provides counseling services for children and families.
In February, the league acquired the Huntington clinic of Pederson-Krag, a social service agency founded in 1957. But “it’s not just the clinic we took over,” Steigman said. Mental health agencies “throughout the state are transferring their licenses or closing clinics because of the financial burden and the deficits that occur. The fiscal model is broken in certain ways,” he said.
There are 18 licensed nonprofit mental health facilities in Nassau and 48 in Suffolk, according to the State Office of Mental Health Services. The clinics provide services, including family counseling and drug rehabilitation, for low- and middle-income residents who cannot afford private care.
More than 10,000 individuals sought treatment at nonprofit clinics in Nassau last year, according to the county’s Office of Mental Health, Chemical Dependency, and Developmental Disabilities Services.
Suffolk’s Office of Mental Hygiene said it did not have overall figures. But state data show that nearly 4,000 Suffolk adults and 1,200 children enrolled in Medicaid sought mental health services in 2013. In Nassau, there were 3,600 adults and 850 children on Medicaid who received mental health services.
Freeport clinic forced shut
In May, Catholic Charities Outpatient Mental Health Clinic in Freeport, which has treated 550 patients a year, will shutter after more than 50 years in operation. Earlier this year, the 81-year-old nonprofit Federation Employment and Guidance Services, which provided mental health services throughout Long Island, announced it was closing.
The closures come as Peninsula Counseling Center, a Valley Stream nonprofit founded 102 years ago, and three clinics operated by Pederson-Krag were acquired by other nonprofit mental health agencies in recent months, after years of struggling to stay afloat financially.
Laura A. Cassell, CEO of Catholic Charities of the Diocese of Rockville Centre, said the organization decided it no longer could afford to run its Freeport clinic, because of insufficient reimbursement rates and declining government funding to subsidize care. Over the past three years, Catholic Charities had to raise $1.26 million in private donations to keep the Freeport office open, Cassell said.
“While Catholic Charities is blessed with generous donations to support our ministries, we cannot direct such a large portion to just one service site,” Cassell said. “Many other mental health providers were forced to close their doors for the same reason.”
“Unfortunately, with no hope of permanent additional funding to match the real costs of providing quality services in the future and increasing unfunded government regulatory mandates, this painful decision had to be made,” Cassell said.
In a newsletter to area mental health providers last month, Martha A. Carlin, director of the Long Island field office of the state Office of Mental Health, noted that with the closures and acquisitions, the “beginning of 2015 has been challenging for the Long Island region.”
Declining reimbursements
Mental health providers say some of their fiscal strain is due to low reimbursement rates by private insurers.
Under Medicaid, clinics are reimbursed an average of $130 per visit for an adult patient and $137 for a child, according to state figures.
Commercial insurance providers pay from 20 percent to 50 percent less, several local mental health providers said. Officials with the New York Health Plan Association, which represents commercial health insurance providers, said they could not provide data on reimbursement rates because each company negotiates rates with clinics.
The incentive to treat higher-paying Medicaid patients means that some clinics are opting to see fewer patients covered by commercial insurance, said Andrew Malekoff, executive director of the North Shore Child and Family Guidance Center in Roslyn Heights, a nonprofit that has about 5,000 clients annually.
Malekoff, who has testified before state lawmakers about the challenges faced by nonprofit mental health providers, said that with fewer clinics accepting privately insured patients, many families who earn too much to qualify for Medicaid are “left with nowhere to turn for affordable community-based outpatient mental health care.”
The closure of one nonprofit clinic often causes a ripple effect among the small group of Long Island nonprofit clinics, where phones are “ringing off the hook,” with queries from displaced patients looking for affordable care, said Jeffrey Friedman, CEO of Central Nassau Guidance Services in Hicksville.
“As a result of the closures, we’ve had an influx of people calling us,” Friedman said. “I think for us the landscape is changing drastically because the reimbursement from insurance companies is not adequate. We’re losing money on that visit.”
Leslie Moran, spokeswoman for the New York Health Plan Association, said each provider negotiates reimbursement rates with clinics, aiming to control costs to keep plan rates down for consumers.
“The reality is, in our health care system, affordability is something we have to keep an eye on,” Moran said.
In 2012, the nonprofit Family & Children’s Association, of Mineola, closed its mental health clinics in Roosevelt and West Hempstead, after years of deficits stemming from services provided to low-income patients.
Jeffrey Reynolds, executive director of the association, said losses at both clinics in 2011 totaled $1.6 million. Keeping them open would have “threatened the livelihood” of other operations, including homeless shelters for seniors and runaways, Reynolds said.
“What happens when you lose these clinics is you’re driving people into chemical dependency, ERs or jails,” he said.
State taking steps to aid LI
State Office of Mental Health spokesman Ben Rosen, to whom Carlin referred questions, said the agency has “taken several steps to help Long Island’s mental health clinics remain fiscally viable.”
Rosen said $60 million has been allocated over the next three years to fiscally distressed clinics statewide, including seven in Nassau and Suffolk. The clinics, which include the former Pederson-Krag clinics, each were assigned “strategic planners” to improve their finances over the next three years, Rosen said.
The agencies acquiring some of the local facilities say the transition is going as seamlessly as possible.
Herrick Lipton, administrative and financial director of New Horizon Counseling Center, said that since taking over Peninsula, the agency has done repair work at the clinic and installed a flat-screen TV in the waiting room. New Horizon, which also runs clinics in Ozone Park, East Elmhurst and the Rockaways, is planning to add Saturday service hours at Peninsula, Lipton said.
“Peninsula was losing money. It didn’t have the ability to invest in repairs . . . they were in dire straits,” Lipton said. “Our goal is to create a sustainable solution for mental health services for Nassau County. In today’s environment, many health care providers are struggling to survive.”
Additional Information: View Website Link
by North Shore Child & Family Guidance Center | Mar 20, 2015 | Anton Media
Despite the influence of some distinguished legislators with big hearts, big government has treated community-based mental health organizations with little respect. For example, at North Shore Child & Family Guidance Center, we have not received a net increase in government funding for our outpatient mental health services for more than 30 years.
Mental health agencies are disappearing all around us. In late January, the Federation of Employment and Guidance Services (FEGS), a $250 million, 81-year-old health and human services organization, announced it was closing. Last month, word came out that Catholic Charities is giving up their Freeport mental health clinic. In the last few years, 100-year-old Peninsula Counseling Center in Valley Stream and 57-year-old Pederson-Krag in Huntington gave up their mental health clinics; South Shore Child Guidance was taken over by the Epilepsy Foundation; and Long Island Consultation Center in West Hempstead and Roosevelt Counseling and Resource Center, which operated since 1958, shut their doors. More than likely, others will follow.
A key factor contributing to this tragic trend is a poorly regulated managed health care system that is more interested in managing costs than managing care, paying a substandard rate for critical services that save children’s lives.
To make up the difference in big government’s neglect and the insurance industry’s greed, mental health organizations have relied for decades on the compassion and generosity of community members who support the cause. But, despite the good that they do, these people are more than do-gooders. They are smart and selfish. They’re smart because they know that what community-based mental health centers do is cost-effective, saving tens of millions of taxpayer dollars by keeping troubled kids out of costly institutional settings. They are selfish because they know, as one of them stated, “If your child is not healthy, my child is not safe.”
Beyond these attributes, our supporters are empathetic. They look into the eyes of their own children, grandchildren, nieces and nephews and feel a deep connection to all children. Perhaps my greatest influence in joining the field of human services was observing the impact of the kindness of others during my youth.
The father of a close childhood friend died in the 1950s. My friend was six-years-old, decades before “grief counseling” entered our lexicon. I lost touch with him as we grew older, but when his mother died years later, I sent him a note. My old friend, who is a physician today, wrote back. I saved his letter, and each time I read it, it leaves a lump in my throat. He wrote: “Dear Andy: What a surprise to hear from you! My mom’s death has caused me to spend hours thinking about my childhood. Some of my most fond recollections involve you and your family. Your father was the dad I didn’t have…”
As a child, I observed my parents and other adults in my family carrying out acts of profound kindness and generosity with no fanfare and no expectation of receiving anything in return. I married a woman who came from a similar family, one in which her parents took in their nieces after the death of their mother. Now I have found these people again among our board of directors and community supporters. What they have in common with my family is their empathy.
Government bureaucracies are by definition dispassionate and without empathy. They have rules and regulations. But only in tyrannies do they get to run things. One can only hope that the policies that guide their rules are based in values rooted in the needs of real people.
I know that we cannot rely exclusively on government to take care of us; we must rely on one another. If we allow empathy to slip away under the cover of economic survival, we’re in trouble. The demise of empathy would be the most perilous consequence of the fragile economy.
Let’s take care to preserve empathy. When all else fails, it’s all that we have to maintain a humane society.
Andrew Malekoff is the executive director of North Shore Child & Family Guidance Center, which provides comprehensive mental health services for children from birth through 24 and their families. To find out more, visit www.northshorechildguidance.org.
by North Shore Child & Family Guidance Center | Mar 12, 2015 | In The Media
SOCIAL MEDIA CAN BE A HAMMER, a tool that is rigidly used, or PUTTY, a tool that is flexible. TROUBLE IS we never grew up learning how to use this tool. It’s all trial and error. And, so, there are human benefits and casualties. Let’s teach our kids how to reduce the casualties and advance the benefits. Maybe this original poem can be a start.
SOCIAL MEDIA?
Tool for good?
Tool for evil?
Tool for fun?
Tool for none?
Tool for look-at-me?
Tool for look-at-you?
Tool for humor?
Tool for ridicule?
Tool for building up?
Tool for tearing down?
Tool for giving?
Tool for taking?
Tool for connecting?
Tool for isolating?
Tool for growing?
Tool for stagnating?
Tool for hiding?
Tool for seeking?
Tool for finding?
Tool for concealing?
Tool for protecting?
Tool for attacking?
Tool for hating?
Tool for loving?
Tool for learning?
Tool for ignoring?
Tool for attacking?
Tool for protecting?
Tool for remembering?
Tool for forgetting?
Tool for listening?
Tool for filibustering?
Tool for boasting?
Tool for humbling?
Tool for challenging?
Tool for accepting?
Tool for leading?
Tool for following?
Tool for organizing?
Tool for disrupting?
Tool for forgiving?
Tool for living?
Tool for who?
Tool for you?
Tool for me?
Additional Information: View Website Link
by North Shore Child & Family Guidance Center | Mar 3, 2015 | Press Releases
North Shore Child & Family Guidance Center is hosting a brand new event this spring: a Luncheon featuring games (mahjong, bridge and canasta), vendor boutiques and a powerful, engaging keynote speaker.
The Luncheon will take place on April 23 at the Glen Head Country Club. Boutiques will open at 10 a.m.; game playing will begin at 10:45; and the luncheon and program will start at 12:30.
The keynote speaker is award-winning journalist Edie Magnus. Ms. Magnus is the Executive Producer of the PBS documentary Cry for Help, an intimate look at the efforts of two high schools to identify adolescents at risk of depression and suicide. She is currently the Executive Director of Media & Innovation at Mercy College.
Co-chairs for the event are Guidance Center board members Janice Ashley of Signature Bank, Amy Cantor and Alexis Siegel. Sponsors to date include Amy Cantor, RFC Fine, Nancy & Lew Lane, Nanci Roth and Alexis & Howard Siegel.
North Shore Child & Family Guidance Center is the pre-eminent not-for-profit children’s mental health agency on Long Island, leading the way in diagnosis, treatment, prevention, training, parent education, research and advocacy. The Guidance Center is dedicated to restoring and strengthening the emotional well-being of children (from birth – age 24) who are troubled, in trouble or causing trouble.
Our highly qualified team of caring psychiatrists, psychologists, social workers, drug and alcohol counselors, mental health counselors, vocational rehabilitation counselors and family advocates work with children and their families to address issues such as depression and anxiety; developmental delays; school refusal; bullying; sexual abuse; teen pregnancy; and family crises stemming from illness, death, trauma and divorce. We offer outpatient mental health counseling and teen drug abuse and prevention services. For more than 60 years, the Guidance Center has been a place of hope and healing, providing innovative and compassionate treatment to all who enter our doors, regardless of their ability to pay.
To register for the Spring Luncheon, please visit: www.northshorechildguidance.org/events.html or call (516) 626 1971 ext. 310.
by North Shore Child & Family Guidance Center | Mar 3, 2015 | Press Releases
On February 25, the Business Advisory Council of North Shore Child & Family Guidance Center hosted Winter Wind-Up, an after-hours networking event at the Revel Restaurant and Bar in Garden City. The evening of winetasting and networking attracted over 60 attendees and raised $1,700 for the Guidance Center’s Children’s Center at Nassau County Family Court. Blank Slate Media, Driven Local and Farrell Fritz, P.C. sponsored the event.
The mission of the Business Advisory Council is to increase awareness of the Guidance Center across corporate Long Island. The Council is chaired by Janice Ashley of Signature Bank and Jacqueline Bushwack of Rivkin Radler LLP.
The Children’s Center, a Guidance Center program, provides a safe and enriching environment for children ages 6 months to 12 years on-site at the Nassau County Family Court while parents are involved in court business.
North Shore Child & Family Guidance Center is the pre-eminent not-for-profit children’s mental health agency on Long Island, leading the way in diagnosis, treatment, prevention, training, parent education, research and advocacy.
The Guidance Center is dedicated to restoring and strengthening the emotional well-being of children (from birth – age 24) who are troubled, in trouble or causing trouble. Our highly qualified team of caring psychiatrists, psychologists, social workers, drug and alcohol counselors, mental health counselors, vocational rehabilitation counselors and family advocates work with children and their families to address issues such as depression and anxiety; developmental delays; school refusal; bullying; sexual abuse; teen pregnancy; and family crises stemming from illness, death, trauma and divorce. We offer outpatient mental health counseling and teen drug abuse and prevention services.
For more than 60 years, the Guidance Center has been a place of hope and healing, providing innovative and compassionate treatment to all who enter our doors, regardless of their ability to pay.
To learn more about the Guidance Center, please visit www.northshorechildguidance.org or call 516 626 1971 ext. 310.
by North Shore Child & Family Guidance Center | Feb 26, 2015 | In The Media
So here’s the deal folks. Last week it was announced that Catholic Charities is giving up their Freeport mental health clinic. In January, $250 million, 81-year-old FEGS announced it was closing; before that Peninsula Counseling Center (PCC) in Valley Stream and Pederson-Krag Center (PK) in Huntington gave up their mental health clinics. (Actually it is more insidious than that. PSCH, an NYC-based $100 million operation, took over PK and PCC and then dumped their mental health clinics). Before that, South Shore Child Guidance was taken over by the Epilepsy Foundation. And before that, Family and Children’s Association let go of their mental health clinics in Roosevelt and West Hempstead. And, there is more to come.
Now, one might ask, “Well, aren’t they being picked up by other organizations?” That may be so; but these mental health clinics were tied to reputable organizations with venerable histories and committed local boards of directors. In other words, they were grounded in community-based cultures.
Culture matters when growing an organization! Change the culture and the values follow. Change the values and time-honored practices change too. Managed care becomes managed cost, and vulnerable children and their families are then shortchanged as a factory mentality prevails.
Why is this happening? Because New York State government leadership is neglectful, misguided and lacking in humane leadership. And, because they can get away with it.
The State has systematically stripped funding from well-established, community-based organizations and, in so doing, has restricted access to care to Medicaid recipients only. Meanwhile, private insurance companies pay substandard rates. Consequently, fewer and fewer providers will contract with them, leaving hundreds of thousands of middle class families in NYS with nowhere to turn for affordable, community-based outpatient mental health care for their children.
Government leaders won’t address the fact that insurers do not have adequate networks of providers because providers don’t like their substandard rates of pay. Why doesn’t the government better regulate them? Because the insurance companies’ lobbyists pay elected officials big bucks for their silence. Elected officials can apply pressure or ease pressure depending on what best suits them and their campaign treasuries.
Now, back to those that let go of the mental health clinics and those that picked up their business. The only profitable way for the latter to proceed, with few exceptions, if any, is to restrict access to care to clients with the best insurance rates (that’s Medicaid); to see clients for shorter amounts of billable time to pack more revenue into a day; to eliminate salaried employees to save expenses by eliminating fringe benefits; to not respond to time-consuming and labor-intensive crisis situations; to cut parents out of the equation; and to eliminate consistent clinical supervision and team meetings that are essential to quality of care. In other words, build a factory to maximize revenues and minimize quality care.
In the end, what you get are fewer and fewer vulnerable children who are able to access the best care and more and more services that slide from a gold standard of care to a bronze standard or worse. This is because New York State plays us for fools. Do you know what they refer to their “transformation” initiative as? CLINIC REFORM and REGIONAL CENTERS OF EXCELLENCE. They deform clinics and call it reform, and they offer mediocrity and call it excellence. Factories and propaganda.
So why are North Shore Child & Family Guidance Center and a few others still standing and providing universal access to care with diverse (including bilingual), salaried employees? Because their boards of directors won’t have it any other way. For now, that is. Whether they can continue to weather the scorched earth policy of New York State remains to be seen. Nevertheless, the public deserves to know what our government and the insurance industry are up to. What are they up to? NO GOOD.
Which kids’ lives are at stake? What kinds of issues are they facing? Depression, anxiety, abuse, neglect, trauma, domestic violence, isolation, school failure, demoralization, bias, bullying, family unrest, learning problems, posttraumatic stress, loss and grief, gang exposure, rape, incest, poverty, dislocation, suicide, homicide, obesity, eating disorders, alcohol and drug addiction, gambling, cutting and burning oneself, immigration (including unaccompanied minors), adjusting to foster care, loneliness, and more.
These are the children that a community-based mental health center sees every day. Lots of them each week, thousands each year. This is what is at stake. This is what is being neglected and eroded by New York State.
What will come of this? More tragedy for more families and, ultimately, more cost to warehouse vulnerable children and youths who will not be able to access preventive care or more intensive outpatient care early on.
How will tragedy manifest itself? Probably not horrifically, like Sandy Hook where the outcry and ocean of tears changed nothing of significance that anyone sees or feels on the ground. It will happen more insidiously and slowly, in drip, drip, drip fashion. That is, unless there is pushback.
Pushback against speed cameras and slot machines brought about change in Nassau County in the snap of the finger. But children’s mental health? Nah, nobody’s going to stand up for that. Until it is their child who is suffering and can’t get quality care. And then, too often, they fight alone. After all, STIGMA rules. And it crushes.
It is more convenient for the masses to pretend that children’s mental health problems are the result of bad upbringing or moral failing. Bad government counts on that. Everyone rallies around kids with cancer. But who rallies around kids with mental illness?
Do you?
You CAN make a difference.
TAKE ACTION AND BE A VOICE FOR VULNERABLE CHILDREN!
Here’s how to help:
- Share this with your friends and colleagues via Facebook, email and other social media
- Write to your local newspaper
- Contact your local, state and federal legislators (see below for contact information)
To find your congressperson: http://www.house.gov/representatives/find/
To find your senator: http://www.senate.gov/general/contact_information/senators_cfm.cfm
To find your New York State Senator in Albany: http://www.nysenate.gov/senators
To find your New York State Assembly member: http://assembly.state.ny.us/mem/search/
Andrew Malekoff is executive director and CEO of the nonprofit North Shore Child & Family Guidance Center in Roslyn Heights, NY
by North Shore Child & Family Guidance Center | Feb 20, 2015 | Anton Media
Anton News, Long Island; Opinion – Andrew Malekoff
February 25 – March 3, 2015
When we hear that our neighbor’s teenage son has been diagnosed with cancer, or that our colleague’s newborn has a heart defect, we shed some tears—and then we move into action. We bring meals; we offer to take their other kids to soccer games or piano lessons; we raise money so the parents can stay home from work to care for their ailing children.
But when we learn that our daughter’s best friend has been hospitalized for depression, or that a boy on our son’s basketball team has stopped going to school because of severe anxiety, we’re often at a loss as to how to respond.
Here’s a fact that may surprise you: Although more children suffer from psychiatric illness than autism, leukemia, diabetes and AIDS combined, only one of five with an emotional disturbance gets help from a mental health specialist. Moreover, 50 percent of serious mental illness occurs before the age of 14.
People with mental health problems and addictions, along with their families, often suffer in silence, while people with physical health problems evoke the sympathy and support of others. Why do we continue to treat illnesses above the neck differently than illnesses below the neck?
The sad truth is that there’s still a widespread stigma when it comes to mental health. The result? Parents who need help often wait months and even years to make that first phone call. A parent whose child is diagnosed with cancer doesn’t wait to ask for help. Waiting only happens with mental illness and addiction.
Fortunately, more than 60 years after our founding, North Shore Child & Family Guidance Center is still here to fight that stigma and provide help to children in need. Let me share a few of their stories.
We met nine-year-old Joey 14 years ago, a few weeks after his father died in the World Trade Center. We soon discovered that he was calling his dad’s cell phone number every day. As Joey explained, “I call because, what if he is still alive? I don’t want him to be all alone.”
We met seven-year-old Jeremy two years ago. He came to us holding a large flashlight in his tiny hands. He said he needed it in case the lights went out again, like they did after Hurricane Sandy, when Jeremy lost his toys, his home, his daily routine. And, as Joey before him, he lost his belief that the world is a safe place.
While we do respond to headline stories, we more often are called upon to respond to personal dramas and private disasters that are hidden in plain sight.
For example, we met six-year-old Jerome soon after he attempted to jump out a window because, as he said, “Nobody loves me.” Fifteen-year-old Celeste said the reason that she cuts her arms until they bleed is not to take her life, but to lower her blood pressure. And 14-year-old Maria told us that she lives in a house with a revolving door welcoming men who touch her.
Depression, anxiety, fear, child abuse, school refusal, bullying, isolation, drug addiction, domestic violence . . . we receive more than 100 calls a week, and increasing numbers are emergencies.
All across Long Island, mental health agencies are shuttering their doors, or they’ve been acquired by corporate entities with no roots in the community. That’s tragic, because community-based mental health organizations are as essential to the health and well-being of our children as hospitals or schools.
What can you do? First, tell your representatives that you value the mental health organization that serves your community and would like their support to ensure its future. And if you know someone whose child is suffering from a mental health issue, don’t ignore them. Make that phone call. Let them know you care.
Bio: Andrew Malekoff is the Executive Director of North Shore Child & Family Guidance Center, which provides comprehensive mental health services for children from birth through 24 and their families. To find out more, visit www.northshorechildguidance.org.
by North Shore Child & Family Guidance Center | Feb 11, 2015 | In The Media
Guidelines is the bi-annual newsletter of North Shore Child & Family Guidance Center.
Click here for Guidelines
by North Shore Child & Family Guidance Center | Jan 30, 2015 | Press Releases
The Fortunoff Backyard Store has made a campaign contribution of $7,500 to North Shore Child & Family Guidance Center to support its mission of restoring and strengthening the emotional well-being of children and families. The donation was made as part of a new campaign initiative to succeed the Campaign for the Next Generation that raised $2.5 million.
According to Guidance Center Executive Director Andrew Malekoff, “This contribution from the Fortunoff Backyard Store will be used to strengthen our capacity to provide universal access to mental health care to children and families of all socio-economic backgrounds. As government support wanes we are depending, more and more, on the community to take ownership in the Guidance Center. Our campaign is aimed as sustaining our services well into the future. We thank the Fortunoff Backyard Store for their generous support.”
Fortunoff Backyard Store CEO Bernard Sensale commented that “the Fortunoff Backyard Store is proud to make this contribution that helps our community as it helps the North Shore Child & Family Guidance Center expand its important mission. The Fortunoff family has long supported their good work, and we’re happy to help continue that effort”.
North Shore Child & Family Guidance Center is the pre-eminent children’s mental health agency on Long Island. The Guidance Center leads the way in diagnosis, treatment, prevention, training, parent education, and advocacy.
The Guidance Center helps families to raise healthy children and works with kids (ages 0-24) who are troubled, in trouble, or causing trouble and parents who need help in these stressful times. Difficulties range from depression and anxiety, developmental delays and school failure, from substance abuse to family crises stemming from illness, death, trauma, and divorce. We offer outpatient mental health counseling and teen drug abuse and prevention services.
Our highly-qualified staff consists of teams of caring psychiatrists, psychologists, social workers, drug & alcohol counselors, mental health counselors, and family advocates, with expertise in working with children.
For more information about the Guidance Center, please visit www.northshorechildguidance.org, or email: development@northshorechildguidance.org.
by North Shore Child & Family Guidance Center | Jan 20, 2015 | Press Releases
North Shore Child & Family Guidance Center has received a campaign contribution of $10,000 from the Charles and Mildred Schnurmacher Foundation to support the Guidance Center’s outpatient mental health program, including the Schnurmacher Bereavement and Trauma Program. The donation was made as part of a new campaign initiative to succeed the Campaign for the Next Generation that raised $2.5 million.
According to Guidance Center Executive Director Andrew Malekoff, “The next campaign phase will focus on sustaining our services into the future. This is especially critical during a time when New York State is moving away from supporting universal access to community-based mental health care for children and families. We are grateful to the Charles and Mildred Schnurmacher Foundation for their decades of support to children’s mental health.”
North Shore Child & Family Guidance Center is the pre-eminent children’s mental health agency on Long Island. The Guidance Center is dedicated to strengthening the emotional well-being of children and families, and leads the way in diagnosis, treatment, prevention, training, parent education, and advocacy.
The Guidance Center helps families to raise healthy children and works with kids (ages 0-24) who are troubled, in trouble, or causing trouble and parents who need help in these stressful times. Difficulties range from depression and anxiety, developmental delays and school failure, from substance abuse to family crises stemming from illness, death, trauma, and divorce. We offer outpatient mental health counseling and teen drug abuse and prevention services.
Our highly-qualified staff consists of teams of caring psychiatrists, psychologists, social workers, drug & alcohol counselors, mental health counselors, and family advocates, with expertise in working with children.
For more information about the Guidance Center, please visit www.northshorechildguidance.org, or email: development@northshorechildguidance.org.
by North Shore Child & Family Guidance Center | Jan 10, 2015 | Press Releases
North Shore Child & Family Guidance Center was the beneficiary of the Port Washington Yacht Club’s Bi-Annual Ladies Luncheon and Dinner held on December 4, resulting in a donation of more than $15,000 to the Guidance Center.
Jackie Weigand, the ladies event committee and the members and guests of Port Washington Yacht Club, selected the Guidance Center as this year’s charity in appreciation of the outstanding programs and services that the Center provides to the children and families of our local communities.
The Port Washington Yacht Club was founded in the spring of 1905 as “The Port Washington Club.” The purpose of the club was stated as being to encourage social and athletic activities for people of the Port Washington peninsula. Through the years the Port Washington Yacht Club has prospered and broadened its membership and activities to a point that would have amazed its founders. The total membership now totals over 390, with significant participation in all traditional yacht club activities.
North Shore Child & Family Guidance Center is the pre-eminent children’s mental health agency on Long Island. The Guidance Center is dedicated to strengthening the emotional well-being of children and families, and leads the way in diagnosis, treatment, prevention, training, parent education, and advocacy.
The Guidance Center helps families to raise healthy children and works with kids (ages 0-24) who are troubled, in trouble, or causing trouble and parents who need help in these stressful times. Difficulties range from depression and anxiety, developmental delays and school failure, from substance abuse to family crises stemming from illness, death, trauma, and divorce. We offer outpatient mental health counseling and teen drug abuse and prevention services.
Our highly-qualified staff consists of teams of caring psychiatrists, psychologists, social workers, drug & alcohol counselors, mental health counselors, and family advocates, with expertise in working with children.
For more information about the Guidance Center, please email: development@northshorechildguidance.org or visit: www.northshorechildguidance.org.
by North Shore Child & Family Guidance Center | Dec 30, 2014 | Press Releases
The Children’s Center at Nassau County Family Court, operated by North Shore Child & Family Guidance Center, is a safe haven for children and a respite for parents who must appear in court. The Children’s Center offers short-term childcare in a safe, supervised, secure and nurturing environment for children from infancy to 12 years of age. Approximately 1,800 children participate yearly.
The Guidance Center is pleased to announce that the WE CARE Fund of the Nassau Bar Association, Inc. has made a grant of $2,500 to support the Children’s Center.
Additionally, Guidance Center’s Community Action Committee and Business Advisory Council just completed a book drive and more than 1,000 children’s books have been collected for the Children’s Center. Reading is an integral part of the day’s activities at the Children’s Center and every child is sent home with a book every day. More than 27,000 books have been distributed.
The WE CARE Fund is the nationally-recognized charitable arm of the Nassau County Bar Association. Founded in 1988, WE CARE funds are raised by the legal profession and the community at large. The money is distributed through charitable grants to improve the quality of life for children, the elderly and others in need throughout Nassau County.
Nurtured by the tireless efforts of lawyers and judges, the WE CARE program has matured into a nationally recognized model for similar programs instituted by other bar groups. With the financial support and personal effort of so many, WE CARE has been able to serve the community in myriad ways.
North Shore Child & Family Guidance Center is the pre-eminent children’s mental health agency on Long Island. The Guidance Center is dedicated to strengthening the emotional well-being of children and families, and leads the way in diagnosis, treatment, prevention, training, parent education, and advocacy.
The Guidance Center helps families to raise healthy children and works with kids (ages 0-24) who are troubled, in trouble, or causing trouble and parents who need help in these stressful times. Difficulties range from depression and anxiety, developmental delays and school failure, from substance abuse to family crises stemming from illness, death, trauma, and divorce. We offer outpatient mental health counseling and teen drug abuse and prevention services.
Our highly-qualified staff consists of teams of caring psychiatrists, psychologists, social workers, drug & alcohol counselors, mental health counselors, and family advocates, with expertise in working with children.
For more information about the Guidance Center, please visit www.northshorechildguidance.org, or email: development@northshorechildguidance.org.
by North Shore Child & Family Guidance Center | Dec 20, 2014 | Press Releases
The Dammann Fund, Inc. has awarded North Shore Child and Family Guidance Center with a grant of $10,000 to support its Good Beginnings for Babies (GBB) program, a service that operates out of the Guidance Center’s Leeds Place in Westbury and offers support for pregnant and parenting teens.
According to Guidance Center CEO Andrew Malekoff, “GBB promotes the healthy development of children by ensuring access to prenatal care and promoting preventive care for parents and their children. We aim to help the moms reach full-term pregnancies, deliver healthy birth weight babies and build strong attachments with their newborns. Good attachments are the cornerstone of healthy emotional development.”
GBB Program Director, Dr. Nellie Taylor-Walthrust added, “In GBB we work with families to develop and promote a community of support. The goal is to reduce isolation of young parents in the early years of their child’s development and increase the community’s sense of responsibility for young families, by building a community of young parents who support one other.” Dr. Taylor-Walthrust added, “We also carefully screen for maternal depression and other perinatal mood disorders and provide treatment or referrals for mental health care, as indicated.”
North Shore Child & Family Guidance Center is the pre-eminent children’s mental health agency on Long Island. The Guidance Center is dedicated to strengthening the emotional well-being of children and families, and leads the way in diagnosis, treatment, prevention, training, parent education, and advocacy.
The Guidance Center helps families to raise healthy children and works with kids (ages 0-24) who are troubled, in trouble, or causing trouble and parents who need help in these stressful times. Difficulties range from depression and anxiety, developmental delays and school failure, from substance abuse to family crises stemming from illness, death, trauma, and divorce. We offer outpatient mental health counseling and teen drug abuse and prevention services.
Our highly-qualified multi-cultural and bi-lingual staff consists of teams of caring psychiatrists, psychologists, social workers, drug & alcohol counselors, mental health counselors, and family advocates, with expertise in working with children.
To learn more about the Guidance Center, visit our website: www.northshorechildguidance.org or call 516 626 1971.
by North Shore Child & Family Guidance Center | Dec 10, 2014 | In The Media
Albany Times Union
Now we learn that Adam Lanza did not get the help that was needed and that might have prevented his murderous rampage (“Chances to help were lost as killer evolved,” Nov. 23).
Think about it: After the Sandy Hook shootings, there was not one parent who was able to escape the tyranny of imagining his or her child being murdered in the neighborhood school. How many more children will be taken from us before lawmakers devote the same energy and resources it takes to launch their re-election campaigns to safeguarding our children?
New York state has ensured easy access to mental health care for Medicaid recipients and neglected the needs of underinsured middle-class families.
The gun lobby is formidable and well-heeled. Children, on the other hand, don’t have a voice until they are in the ground. Children are killed, grieving parents become tireless advocates and laws are passed in their children’s names. Timothy’s Law (mental health parity), Megan’s Law (making information available to the public regarding registered sex offenders) and Katie’s Law (making aggravated vehicular homicide a crime) come to mind.
We need our lawmakers, elected and appointed officials, to wake up. Our children are suffering and dying; families are struggling and desperate. Our leaders can support the constitutional right to bear arms while taking steps to prevent gun violence and providing adequate funding for community-based mental health centers to support the emotional well-being of all of our children.
Andrew Malekoff
Long Beach
Executive Director, North Shore Child and Family Guidance Center, Roslyn Heights
by North Shore Child & Family Guidance Center | Dec 10, 2014 | Press Releases
The Nassau County Department of Human Services, Office of Mental Health, Chemical Dependency and Developmental Disabilities Services, has selected Andrew Malekoff, North Shore Child and Family Guidance Center CEO, as their 2014 Outstanding Provider of the Year in Delivering Integrated Care to Families. He will receive the award at the 5th Annual Conference on Co-Occurring Disorders on December 12, 2014 at Hofstra University, Uniondale, NY during the opening remarks beginning at 9:00 A.M.
Regarding the honor Malekoff stated, “I am grateful to the Nassau County Department of Human Services for honoring me. It is particularly meaningful to be recognized just days before the second anniversary of the December 14th tragedy at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut. After the Newtown shootings there was not one parent in the United States who was able to escape the tyranny of imagining their child being murdered in their neighborhood school. Being honored reminds me about how much more needs to be done. How many more children will be taken from us before lawmakers devote the same energy and resources it takes to launch their re-election campaigns, to safeguarding our children, by taking steps to prevent gun violence andprovide adequate funding for community-based mental health centers to support the emotional well-being of all of our children?”
North Shore Child & Family Guidance Center is the pre-eminent children’s mental health agency on Long Island. The Guidance Center is dedicated to strengthening the emotional well-being of children and families, and leads the way in diagnosis, treatment, prevention, training, parent education, and advocacy.
The Guidance Center helps families to raise healthy children and works with kids (ages 0-24) who are troubled, in trouble, or causing trouble and parents who need help in these stressful times. Difficulties range from depression and anxiety, developmental delays and school failure, from substance abuse to family crises stemming from illness, death, trauma, and divorce. We offer outpatient mental health counseling and teen drug abuse and prevention services.
Our highly-qualified multi-cultural and bi-lingual staff consists of teams of caring psychiatrists, psychologists, social workers, drug & alcohol counselors, mental health counselors, and family advocates, with expertise in working with children.
To learn more about the Guidance Center, visit our website: www.northshorechildguidance.org or call 516 626 1971.
by North Shore Child & Family Guidance Center | Dec 4, 2014 | In The Media
Immediately after the Dec. 14, 2012, shootings in Newtown, Conn., mental health experts offered tips to speechless parents about how to soothe their children [“Report: Sandy Hook killer enabled,” News, Nov. 22]. The advice sounded like this: Be available emotionally, be compassionate, limit media exposure, reassure safety, offer distractions to prevent obsessive worry, monitor for angry outbursts and depression and, if symptoms persist, seek professional help.
I imagine many parents were thinking, instead, “It’s a cruel world, evil is everywhere, watch your back, and don’t trust anyone.”
After the Sandy Hook shootings there was probably not one parent in the United States able to escape the tyranny of imagining his or her child being killed in a neighborhood school. How many more children will be taken before lawmakers devote energy and resources to safeguarding our children?
Take steps to prevent gun violence — within the constitutional right to bear arms — and provide adequate funding for community-based mental health centers for the emotional well-being of all of our children.
Andrew Malekoff
Editor’s note: The writer is the executive director for the nonprofit North Shore Child and Family Guidance Center in Roslyn Heights.
Link to Newsday letter
by North Shore Child & Family Guidance Center | Dec 2, 2014 | In The Media
In Remembrance of Gerry Leeds (1922-2014), a champion for vulnerable children and youth and a great friend to North Shore Child and Family Guidance Center.
Slide Show
by North Shore Child & Family Guidance Center | Nov 30, 2014 | Press Releases
North Shore Child and Family Guidance Center has received a two-year grant award of $170,000 from the van Ameringen Foundation to support the organization’s outpatient mental health program. According to Andrew Malekoff, CEO of North Shore Child and Family Guidance Center, “We are gratified to receive this generous grant at such a critical time when increasing numbers of community-based mental health clinics are restricting access to care. This grant will enable us to continue our policy of offering universal access to care and turning no one away for inability to pay.” Malekoff added that the “van Ameringen Foundation has been staunch supporters of children’s mental health and was instrumental in helping the Guidance Center to launch and sustain our successful school-based mental health program and triage and emergency service.”
North Shore Child & Family Guidance Center is the pre-eminent children’s mental health agency on Long Island. The Guidance Center is dedicated to strengthening the emotional well-being of children and families, and leads the way in diagnosis, treatment, prevention, training, parent education, and advocacy.
The Guidance Center helps families to raise healthy children and works with kids (ages 0-24) who are troubled, in trouble, or causing trouble and parents who need help in these stressful times. Difficulties range from depression and anxiety, developmental delays and school failure, from substance abuse to family crises stemming from illness, death, trauma, and divorce. We offer outpatient mental health counseling and teen drug abuse and prevention services.
Our highly-qualified multi-cultural and bi-lingual staff consists of teams of caring psychiatrists, psychologists, social workers, drug & alcohol counselors, mental health counselors, and family advocates, with expertise in working with children.
To learn more about the Guidance Center, visit our website: www.northshorechildguidance.org or call 516 626 1971.
by North Shore Child & Family Guidance Center | Nov 25, 2014 | In The Media
New York Nonprofit Press
By Andrew Malekoff, Executive Director
Recently, I participated in a New York State Office of Mental Health Clinic Vital Access Provider (VAP) webinar. The webinar is a first step towards Article 31 mental health clinics applying for funding to preserve long term critical access to community-based mental health services. A total of $60 million in funding, over a three year period, is available.
The intention of the VAP funding opportunity is for community-based mental health clinics that are “fiscally challenged” to develop plans that will demonstrate fiscal viability after three years. The funds can be used for such things as incremental costs for staffing and billing software, for example.
Each clinic that receives a VAP award will be assigned a “strategic planner,” who would be a financial specialist, to help them to complete their final application, to include measurable outcomes. The ongoing achievement of measurable metrics will be tied to continued payments to agencies that have been awarded funding.
The ultimate goal of the project, whether through mergers, improved efficiencies such as centralized scheduling, or agency sharing of back office functions, will be to ensure long term fiscal viability. I thought that the webinar was very informative.
Webinar participants were given an opportunity to ask questions by typing them into a chat box function during the presentation. At the end of the almost two hour webinar, the moderator thanked the participants and concluded the session by stating that all questions had been addressed. Not so!
Here are three questions that I typed in that the moderator did not acknowledge or respond to:
- Is the VAP funding initiative biased against middle class and working poor non-Medicaid children and their families who have no other viable access to labor-intensive community-based mental health care?
- Our specialty children’s mental health agency [North Shore Child and Family Guidance Center] works with approximately 68% non-Medicaid and 32% Medicaid and Medicaid Managed Care families? Would a viable VAP proposal look to severely restrict access to care for children in Nassau County who need our outpatient care?
- It appears that you are supporting mergers. Is there any concern about what has come of the New York City-based PSCH takeovers in Nassau and Suffolk Counties?
I felt that I had to ask these questions since, in my attending one webinar after another sponsored by OMH’s Children’s Technical Assistance Center (CTAC), the issue of universal access to children’s outpatient mental health care is routinely skirted. The sole focus of OMH webinars, regarding children in need of mental health care, are Medicaid-eligible children. North Shore Child and Family Guidance Center is a proponent of universal access for children and their families. New York State is not.
On the issue of access to care, earlier in the year I asked Governor Cuomo about this and he directed my letter to OMH Commissioner Dr. Ann Marie T. Sullivan, who responded by stating that there is a work group looking into the issue of the non-Medicaid population. One outcome would be to get commercial insurers to increase their rates which, on average, are significantly lower than Medicaid rates. However, the State Department of Financial Services, within which the State Insurance Department is subsumed, does not have the authority to regulate commercial rates. Statute change, which is unlikely, would be required for this to happen.
Presently, commercial insurance network adequacy, including for behavioral health care, is monitored every three years by the Department of Financial Services. However, I think it is unlikely that this will lead to significant penalties that would bring about change for entities that do not provide adequate networks of care. After all, the health insurance lobby is well-healed and well-connected in Albany.
On the issue of mergers, a few years ago New York City-based PSCH took over Pederson Krag in Suffolk County and Peninsula Counseling Center in Nassau County, both well-established and well-respected community-based mental health agencies on Long Island. When a larger entity takes over a smaller one, the smaller one’s board of directors is dissolved and, at best, becomes an advisory committee, with a few select board members joining the larger entity’s board of directors. This is a step toward diluting the local community’s investment in the organization and its mission.
It appears that PSCH has given up on Pederson Krag and its clinics are being dispersed and made available to other interested parties. Will this also be the fate of Peninsula Counseling Center? What are the consequences of decades of dedicated professional and lay leaders building a community-based culture, and then having it demolished by a takeover by a $100 million dollar organization that did not take. And, so, I thought it was a reasonable question to ask the VAP moderator whose agenda would appear to promote mergers and takeovers.
What do you think?
by North Shore Child & Family Guidance Center | Nov 20, 2014 | Press Releases
On November 1, the Guidance Center hosted its annual gala, Dancing With Our Stars 2014, at the Garden City Hotel. With 240 in attendance, the event raised more than $320,000.
The honoree for the night was Andy Malekoff, Executive Director/CEO, who began working at the Guidance Center in 1977. Guests were entertained by five “dancing stars” and their professional partners from the dance studio, Ballroom Legacy. The Dancing Stars were:
Ernesto Altamirano, Fitness Trainer/Founder, pickyourowntrainer.com; Kim Kaiman, Executive Director, North Hempstead Business & Tourism Development Corp.; Steve Malito, Davidoff Hutcher & Citron LLP; Dr. Steven Schoenbart, Schoenbart Vision Care; Daphne Zhou-Chan, Harvest International.
Len Berman, well-known Sportscaster/Author was the evening’s emcee and the live auctioneer was Greg Buttle, former All Pro Linebacker, NJ Jets/Color Analyst, Jets Radio Network. The event co-chairs are Josephine and Floyd Ewing, Jr. and Nancy and Lew Lane.
North Shore Child & Family Guidance Center is the pre-eminent children’s mental health agency on Long Island. The Guidance Center is dedicated to strengthening the emotional well-being of children and families, and leads the way in diagnosis, treatment, prevention, training, parent education, and advocacy.
The Guidance Center helps families to raise healthy children and works with kids (ages 0-24) who are troubled, in trouble, or causing trouble and parents who need help in these stressful times. Difficulties range from depression and anxiety, developmental delays and school failure, from substance abuse to family crises stemming from illness, death, trauma, and divorce. We offer outpatient mental health counseling and teen drug abuse and prevention services.
Our highly-qualified staff consists of teams of caring psychiatrists, psychologists, social workers, drug & alcohol counselors, mental health counselors, and family advocates, with expertise in working with children.
For more information about the Gala or the Guidance Center, please visit www.northshorechildguidance.org, call our development office at 516 626-1971, ext. 320 or email: development@northshorechildguidance.org.
by North Shore Child & Family Guidance Center | Nov 14, 2014 | In The Media
Friday, November 14, 2014
“Five years ago, a 12-year-old Latina girl committed suicide in her family’s garage in the town of Westbury, NY, a diverse suburb on Long Island that has pockets of poverty and has seen an influx of immigration from Central and South American countries in the last few decades. The town – adjacent to Old Westbury, which was cited by Forbes magazine as the 10th most expensive zip code in the United States – is rife with overcrowded, rundown multi-family housing, and a large percentage of the population is struggling to make ends meet . . . It is an unsafe and stressful environment for anyone, but especially perilous for teenage girls. . . “
So begins a moving story published by the national publication LIFELINES: Stories from the Human Safety Net. Journalist Jenna Kern-Rugile goes on to tell the story of the development of North Shore Child and Family Guidance Center’s Latina Girls Project. The moving story details the work of a team of bilingual, bicultural social workers and mental health counselors who are helping at-risk girls.
Click the following link to read the full story by Jenna Kern-Rugile:
http://www.humansafetynet.com/latina-teens/
North Shore Child and Family Guidance Center offers universal access to community-based mental health care for children and their families, and turns no one away for inability to pay. Thank you for your support!
by North Shore Child & Family Guidance Center | Oct 30, 2014 | Press Releases
On October 28, 2014, The Leeds Place of North Shore Child and Family Guidance Center hosted a dynamic forum entitled: “Newly-Arrived Central American Children: A Presentation on the Role of U.S. Policy on Immigration.” Guest speaker Érika Patricia Guerra Escalante who is on tour from El Progresso, Honduras, spoke to an audience of social workers, psychiatrists, educators, advocates, attorneys and business people about the hardship and challenges faced by children who migrate from Honduras. For example, she testified that gang involvement is not a choice for youths in Honduras, rather it is a demand that is met by either their acquiescence or death.
Andrew Malekoff, CEO of North Shore Child and Family Guidance Center opened the forum by saying, “What an honor it is to have this delegation join us this morning to raise consciousness about the plight of these children; and, to motivate joint action to ensure that the newly-arriving children, many of whom have histories of trauma and loss, receive our full support to help them to lead fulfilling lives in the United States.”
North Shore Child & Family Guidance Center is the pre-eminent children’s mental health agency on Long Island. The Guidance Center is dedicated to strengthening the emotional well-being of children and families, and leads the way in diagnosis, treatment, prevention, training, parent education, and advocacy.
The Guidance Center helps families to raise healthy children and works with kids (ages 0-24) who are troubled, in trouble, or causing trouble and parents who need help in these stressful times. Difficulties range from depression and anxiety, developmental delays and school failure, from substance abuse to family crises stemming from illness, death, trauma, and divorce. We offer outpatient mental health counseling and teen drug abuse and prevention services.
Our highly-qualified multi-cultural and bi-lingual staff consists of teams of caring psychiatrists, psychologists, social workers, drug & alcohol counselors, mental health counselors, and family advocates, with expertise in working with children.
To learn more about the Guidance Center, visit our website: www.northshorechildguidance.org or call 516 626 1971.
by North Shore Child & Family Guidance Center | Oct 20, 2014 | Press Releases
North Shore Child & Family Guidance Center hosted a reception on October 8 to celebrate the Campaign for the Next Generation and the rededication of the Lucille S. and Martin E. Kantor Bereavement & Trauma Center.
The Guidance Center completed the first stage of the Campaign by reaching the goal of $2.5 million. A second stage of the Campaign will begin immediately. The Campaign was led by board members, Jo-Ellen Hazan and Andrea Leeds.
Seven of the Past Presidents of the organization were on hand to celebrate the rededication of the Bereavement & Trauma Center named in honor of Lucille S. and Martin E. Kantor:
Joan Saltzman (president in 1965), Dorothy Greene (president in 1973), Jane Schwartz (president in 1979), Lucille Kantor (president in 1983), Sandy Garfunkel (president in 1997), and Jo-Ellen Hazan (president in 2005).
The occasion was celebrated with several local government leaders: Nassau County Legislator Judith Jacobs, New York State Assemblymen Chuck Lavine and Michael Montesano, and Town of North Hempstead Council Members Anna Kaplan and Peter Zuckerman.
North Shore Child & Family Guidance Center is the pre-eminent children’s mental health agency on Long Island. The Guidance Center is dedicated to strengthening the emotional well-being of children and families, and leads the way in diagnosis, treatment, prevention, training, parent education, and advocacy.
The Guidance Center helps families to raise healthy children and works with kids (ages 0-24) who are troubled, in trouble, or causing trouble and parents who need help in these stressful times. Difficulties range from depression and anxiety, developmental delays and school failure, from substance abuse to family crises stemming from illness, death, trauma, and divorce. We offer outpatient mental health counseling and teen drug abuse and prevention services.
Our highly-qualified staff consists of teams of caring psychiatrists, psychologists, social workers, drug & alcohol counselors, mental health counselors, and family advocates, with expertise in working with children.
To learn more about the Guidance Center, visit our website: www.northshorechildguidance.org.
by North Shore Child & Family Guidance Center | Aug 21, 2014 | In The Media
Reading Ruben Navarrette Jr.’s essay, “The boundaries of immigrant identity” [Opinion, Aug. 17], brings to mind the emotional impact, on young people, of the never-ending stream of events with racial and ethnic overtones — for example, war, terrorism, bias crimes and racially charged jury trials.
One can only hope, as a new school year approaches, that along with a focus on standardized testing, educators find time to encourage discussion about ethnic identity, prejudice and intergroup relations. Opportunities for healthy exchanges of ideas and opinions about controversial subjects in a safe environment enables young people to test their beliefs and attitudes, to practice listening to others’ views, to respectfully express differences, and to find common ground.
National research affirms that feeling connected to school is a critical variable for students’ success. Teens who feel connected are less likely to engage in such behaviors as self-harming, violence, early sexual activity, eating disorders and suicide. Recognizing and building on the strengths and assets of children and youths and promoting social and emotional learning are essential to optimizing connectedness.
Andrew Malekoff, Long Beach
Editor’s note: The writer is the executive director of the nonprofit North Shore Child and Family Guidance Center in Roslyn Heights.
by North Shore Child & Family Guidance Center | Aug 18, 2014 | In The Media
Guidelines is the bi-annual newsletter of North Shore Child & Family Guidance Center.
Click here for Guidelines
