Government

Southold Town creating new youth mental health services

A lack of mental health care services for Southold’s youth are now being discussed at different levels.

State Sen. Kenneth LaValle is working to find funding to help address the issue, town government liaison officer Denis Noncarrow said Tuesday.

“It’s been a challenge through the years,” he said.

Mr. Noncarrow pointed out that local legislators had worked to provide funding for similar services on the South Fork after the East Hampton community lost three students to suicide, two of them about two months apart in 2012.

The Family Service League, an organization that provides mental health counseling for families, set up a satellite office there in response to those losses and the initiative is now trying to set up something similar on the North Fork, according to Southold Town community relations specialist and Youth Bureau member Lynn Nyilas.

A local office would provide immediate help for families and the service can also provide free training that would help make families aware of signs of suicide and there has been discussion of making that available come spring, she said.

The town has also been in touch with the psychiatric department at Stony Brook University Hospital about the matter, Mr. Noncarrow said.

“I think we have a lot of good things going and I don’t think it’s going to be a long wait so far,” he said.

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