POUGHKEEPSIE – Dutchess County Executive Sue Serino announced Wednesday a new county partnership with Family Services, Inc. to expand access to mental health services in northern Dutchess County. The partnership includes an expansion of children’s services in Poughkeepsie and the creation of new children’s’ programs in northern Dutchess County in 2025. With support from Dutchess County Department of Mental Health (DMH), Family Services is developing a new, larger outpatient mental health clinic in the northern Dutchess area, which will expand access for adults and be home to the new children’s behavioral health program.
Serino said, “Every child in Dutchess County deserves access to quality mental health services, and I have made expanding access to these services a top priority for my administration. The county’s partnership with Family Services will bring this vital programming to northern Dutchess County.”
Children’s behavioral health programming provides children between the ages of three and 17 with services that include comprehensive evaluation, crisis intervention, individual/group/family therapy, as well as psychiatric evaluation and ongoing medication management.
Earlier this year, Family Services received a $250,000 grant from New York State Office of Mental Health (OMH) to expand children’s services at their Poughkeepsie location as well as others outside of Dutchess County. Following public forums and roundtables discussing mental health needs, Serino requested Family Services, Inc.to offer these much-needed children’s mental health services in the northern Dutchess area. To make a northern Dutchess program possible, the county will match the New York State OMH funding, investing $250,000 in start-up funding.
Family Services CEO Leah Feldman told Mid-Hudson News that the new northern Dutchess services for children are in demand.
“We will begin serving ages three to 17 in the Behavioral Health Center of Northern Dutchess because we know that children’s and youth mental health has been a crisis across the nation,” and is addressed the county assistance. “We are really pleased that the county executive believes in making sure everyone has access to services and is partnering with us in creating additional services in northern Dutchess.”
The new children’s behavioral health program will be part of the development of Family Services’ new, larger outpatient mental health clinic in Northern Dutchess. Family Services has outgrown its existing location at Northern Dutchess Hospital in Rhinebeck and is currently working to finalize a larger, easy to access location. Dutchess County DMH will provide $205,000 in funding support for the new location, which, pending site finalization and construction, is expected to open in late 2025.
The county’s funding is part of a contract amendment that will redirect funding previously allocated to Family Services, identified in a recent audit by the Dutchess County Comptroller’s Office, and repurpose the funding to establish the needed children’s behavioral health services and new northern Dutchess location.
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