Northern Westchester Hospital held their annual golf classic fundraiser on Tuesday, July 9th at the championship GlenArbor golf course in Bedford Hills, NY. Approximately 140 golfers participated and raised $215,000. The golf outing will benefit the hospital’s building of a new comprehensive mental health services program for children and adolescents. According to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention across the country there is a growing number of mental health related issues among children and adolescents with 1 in 5 children having a mental, emotional or behavioral disorder.
The program, which is still being developed, plans to have a multi-tiered approach and will partner with elementary, middle and high schools in northern Westchester to create a mental health system of care. There will be four pillars to the overall strategy that include:
- School-based Mental Health Programs: Working closely with school districts, NWH/Northwell will educate and support the administration, faculty and staff as well as students’ families in effectively addressing mental health needs by focusing on early identification and and providing resources for the family to take action.
- Behavioral Health Center: Clinicians at the free-standing crisis center in northern Westchester will support our local school districts by intervening early (in some cases within 24 hours of a mental health crisis) and proactively provide a supportive environment for the family when a child or adolescent is experiencing a mental health episode.
- Child and Adolescent Outpatient Psychiatric Practice: NWH/Northwell plans to open a child and adolescent psychiatric outpatient practice staffed by Northwell’s clinical experts that provides comprehensive treatment for young people experiencing mental health symptoms and needing clinical intervention. Services will include individual therapy, medication management and telepsychiatry consultations.
- Partial Hospitalization/Intensive Outpatient Program: This partial hospitalization program bridges the gap between inpatient and outpatient care for children and adolescents recovering from acute mental health challenges. The structured and supportive environment ensures young people make a successful transition from an inpatient setting to life back in the community.
