In Bethpage, The Safe Center creates mental health clinic

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The Safe Center, a Bethpage-based agency that offers services for victims and survivors of violence and abuse, is creating a licensed mental health clinic. The agency’s combined investment for this initiative, including staff time and private funding, exceeds $150,000.

With this initiative, The Safe Center is expanding its services to further assist those who have experienced interpersonal violence including domestic violence, child sexual and severe physical abuse, rape and sexual assault, and human trafficking.

This project is an expansion of The Safe Center’s prior grant-funded services, allowing the agency to serve the increased demand for trauma-informed mental health services. The expansion will include the addition of an on-staff, licensed psychiatrist, and it is the first time that The Safe Center will offer these services.

“This is a natural evolution of our work and services and is essential to helping victims and survivors get the support and healing they need. With the shifting service landscape on Long Island, it is critical that The Safe Center expands its capacity to serve victims and survivors,” Joshua Hanson, executive director of The Safe Center, said in a written statement.

“Untreated and undertreated trauma only gets worse, and symptoms generalize and can worsen over time including avoidance, depression, anxiety, and disruptive behaviors in some cases,” Hanson added.

The center points to studies that show that trauma exposure can lead to adverse health and mental health outcomes, including substance use, mental health issues, and an increased likelihood for chronic illness. For those with the most severe exposure to childhood trauma, there is a 25% reduction in life expectancy, according to the center.

The creation of the clinic comes at a time when The Safe Center said in a news release that its clinical programs are operating at capacity, receiving more referrals than it can serve. This complicates the process of triaging high-need victims and survivors of interpersonal violence. The reverberations of the pandemic continue, with the Long Island-wide referral network straining under an increased demand and a reduction in trauma-informed service providers.

With the new clinic, the center aims to provide a reliable direct referral network. That network is designed to expedite the deployment of services to a client by creating a more efficient assessment process and removing barriers to care. The network would foster greater flexibility to provide both long-term and short-term care. It would reach people who might not realize there is specialized trauma support in the community or who are reluctant to take advantage of a service that is free to them but feel others might need more. It would also provide services that are based on need rather than a first-come, first-serve basis.