Long Island lost psychiatric beds while demand for mental health services rose, report shows

Long Island has lost nearly 200 inpatient psychiatric beds since 2014, even as the mental health needs of the region have continued to grow, according to a new report released Wednesday by state Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli.

From April 2014 through December 2023, inpatient psychiatric capacity decreased statewide by 10.5%, or 990 beds, from 9,447 beds to 8,457 beds, the report said.

Nearly 75% of the decline was driven by fewer beds in state psychiatric centers while the remainder came from community hospitals that provide 24-hour inpatient services, the data shows.

“Increased mental health services are urgently needed to meet the rising demand for care,” DiNapoli said. “With the COVID pandemic behind us, New York must redouble its efforts to restore inpatient psychiatric bed capacity and preserve and expand telehealth services.”

As of December, Suffolk County had 843 total inpatient psychiatric beds — the most of any county outside of New York City — while Nassau had 223 beds, the report found.

But that capacity declined significantly between 2014 and the end of last year — a period when Suffolk lost 129 beds and Nassau lost 47, the comptroller's office said.

Much of the decline occurred during the pandemic when many psychiatric beds statewide were converted for COVID-19 medical care.

The decline in inpatient psychiatric care, meanwhile, comes during a time when there was a 23% increase in the number of New Yorkers served by the state's public mental health system, the report said.

“That's not just a disparity. That's a canyon of inequity,” Steve Chassman, executive director of the Westbury-based Long Island Council on Alcoholism and Drug Dependence, which helps residents with a host of mental health issues, said of the numbers. 

Aside from the mental health risks, there is also a financial cost to not having adequate psychiatric services available, he said.

“You're looking at work productivity loss, the cost of hospitalization and for law enforcement,” Chassman said. 

Roughly two-thirds of Long Island's 1,066 inpatient psychiatric beds are located in community hospitals, data shows.

In January, state officials sent letters to community hospitals directing them to reopen approximately 850 nonoperational inpatient psychiatric beds that were taken offline during the pandemic.

The hospitals were required to reopen the beds by Feb. 10 or submit a plan to reopen them by April 1. Hospitals that failed to comply risked civil penalties of up to $2,000 per day or $25,000 per violation.

To date, the state has restored nearly 500 psychiatric beds that were offline at community-based hospitals, including 67 at facilities on Long Island, officials said. Another 50 beds have been restored at the Pilgrim Psychiatric Center in Brentwood, state officials said.

“Challenges to reopening the offline beds … include recruiting, hiring and paying for additional staff, the costs of new beds and equipment, and limited options for discharging patients to residential settings or longer-term psychiatric care,” the report said.

The State Office of Mental Health recently sent warning letters to Nassau University Medical Center in East Meadow and to NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital in Manhattan, advising them to “make fully operational their duly licensed inpatient capacity” to avoid fines.

NUMC, Long Island's only public hospital, which has been facing severe financial issues in recent years, did not respond to requests for comment.

“We appreciate the comptroller’s acknowledgment that significant progress has been made since 2013, including forcing hospitals to bring hundreds of inpatient psychiatric beds back online and establishing 150 new beds at state-run facilities,” said Justin Mason, a spokesman for the State Office of Mental Health. “Inpatient care is one component of the broad continuum of mental health care, and we will continue our efforts to address the full spectrum of mental health needs.”

Gov. Kathy Hochul's 2023-24 state budget includes $1 billion in new funding for the state's mental health system, DiNapoli said.

State data indicates that more than 3.2 million adult New Yorkers are living with some form of mental illness, with rates particularly high among those ages 18-25. Roughly 783,000 of those New Yorkers were diagnosed with a serious mental illness that “substantially interferes with or limits one or more major life activities,” the report said.

By Robert Brodsky

robert.brodsky@newsday.com@BrodskyRobert

Robert Brodsky is a breaking news reporter who has worked at Newsday since 2011. He is a Queens College and American University alum.