This week, Assemblyman Fred W. Thiele, Jr. (D-Sag Harbor) announced that the 2023-24 State Budget contains $175,000 to continue the South Fork Behavioral Health Initiative, and an additional $175,000 for the North Fork Coalition for Behavioral Health. These initiatives are a collaborative effort between school districts, Family Service League, Stony Brook Medicine, local governments and other local service agencies to provide increased mental health services in East End public schools. Since their inception, these programs have made significant progress in increasing access to mental health treatment on both forks of Long Island, which have traditionally been underserved in the area of mental health services.

Assemblyman Thiele stated, “It is vitally important that we continue to provide state funding for crucial mental health crisis services for the East End. These programs have shown tremendous success toward meeting the mental health needs that exist in our communities. I am proud that we were able to secure additional state funding to expand the breadth and scope of mental health services in our schools.”