Note: This week’s blog is an excerpt of a letter sent by North Shore Child & Family Guidance Center Executive Director Andrew Malekoff to our board, supporters and staff.

Just two weeks ago, a single parent walked in our Roslyn Heights office seeking mental health care for her child who was experiencing distress that included mood swings and severe behavioral problems. As our intake staff member gathered information from the parent, we learned that the family first called for an appointment at the outpatient facility of a large local hospital system.

When the parent contacted the hospital’s outpatient program, she was told that they could not see the child until July 2019!  The parent informed her school, located in mid-Nassau County. The school, which sends representatives to attend our annual pupil personnel meeting in October of each year, then referred the parent to North Shore Child & Family Guidance Center. We responded immediately, as is our practice. It’s not that we aren’t extremely busy. It’s that we structure our services not to turn people away. We understand what being turned away means to a family with a child living with mental illness. We offer universal access to care.  

Sadly, for many families on Long Island this is not an unusual story. In fact, we had been negotiating with the very same hospital system to subcontract with us, using an abundance of NY State funds allocated to several large hospital systems on Long Island, to grow our emergency services. The negotiations went on for the better part of a year at which point the hospital suddenly withdrew, despite the fact that we were given a contract by them to expand our emergency services. In other words, they backed out with no explanation. All of the talks had been routine and collegial. No red flags.

Soon thereafter the same large hospital system opened an “urgent care” unit of their own for children. In that “urgent care” program, they see patients only briefly, usually once, and then refer them out. They have referred many children to the Guidance Center, increasing our caseload without providing us with the additional funding they had originally promised. More funding would have meant more staff to meet the growing demand that we face, exacerbated by their referrals.

We are proud to have structured our services to be able to respond rapidly and without creating waiting lists, despite the fact that we are not funded or staffed like hospitals.

As a result of what we do and how we do it, we were able to see that “walk-in” – the parent who came with her distressed child after being turned away by the big hospital outpatient program with an “urgent care” unit.

This is just one illustration that represents many of those families that call us and walk through our doors. Just think about everyone else who has called that hospital since and were told that they must wait seven months to be seen. It’s tragic.

I’m grateful to our board and supporters for their leadership, faith and continued support that enable us to be a beacon of hope for so many children and families that would otherwise be left in the cold. I’m also very proud of our staff for their dedication, expertise and hard work.

Rest well in knowing that at least for that parent and that child, Christmas wasn’t a time of worrying about who they could turn to next – because they found North Shore Child & Family Guidance Center.