Suffolk County and Family Service League enhance partnership for mental health

Starting soon, social workers from Family Service League will be located at Suffolk County’s 911 call center to handle calls from people experiencing a mental health crisis.

Suffolk County executive Ed Romaine announced the initiative at a press conference at the H. Lee Dennison Building in Hauppauge on Oct. 21. October is Mental Health Awareness Month.

Since 2021, operators at the call center have been able to transfer calls from people experiencing mental health or substance abuse problems to Family Service League social workers located at the nonprofit’s offices,  Family Service League chief strategy and innovation officer Jeff Stiegman said.

In that time, Family Service League social workers have handled more than 1,000 calls transferred from the 911 center, he said.

But in what Stiegman called “the next iteration” of the relationship between the county and the nonprofit, Family Service League social workers and 911 operators will be located in the same room to make for a smooth handoff and better communication.

Stiegman called it “a best practice,” which he said is already used elsewhere, including Houston and Austin, Texas.He expects Family Service League, which is based in Huntington and has a mobile crisis unit in Hauppauge, to see “quite an uptick” in calls, once the new system is in place.

Having social workers, rather than police, handle mental health calls allows police to respond to crimes and frees them from having to respond to calls they don’t always feel comfortable responding to, police commissioner Kevin Catalina said.

The social workers are expected to start at the 911 call center within the next few weeks, county officials said.

Family Service League is in the process of hiring two social workers to work at the 911 call center, Stiegman said. They will be paid for by the county.

Initially, there will be one social worker there during peak call hours. The plan is to hire more social workers and expand coverage to longer hours, Stiegman said.

Romaine called it a “step in the right direction” and a move that will keep people safe, he said.

County Legis. Dominick Thorne, who attended the press conference and is vice chair of the legislature’s Seniors and Human Services Committee, applauded the announcement.

It might make people experiencing a mental health crisis more willing to seek help, he said.