Family Services’ new building will accommodate child behavior service

POUGHKEEPSIE — New mental health care access is coming to Northern Dutchess County as the demand for mental health services has been increasing.

Family Services Inc., an outpatient mental health clinic, has outgrown their facility, which was located at Northern Dutchess Hospital in Rhinebeck. Now, the incorporation is upgrading to a much larger location in Rhinebeck that is expected to open late this year.

“They’ll be working on being able to accommodate seeing children there as well. It’ll be basically like individual therapy or counseling sessions for youth and adults.” said Mental Health Commissioner Jean-Marie Niebuhr. “It will also be group therapy. There’ll be some opportunities for medication management, psychotropic medication management for mental health conditions.”
Family Services currently has eight locations, five of which are within Dutchess County and can be found in Millbrook, Rhinebeck, Beacon, Eastern Dutchess and Poughkeepsie.

The new facility will bring more resources and expand access to adults, and will now house the new children’s behavioral health program. This program will provide children up to the age of 17 with services that could include: comprehensive evaluation, crisis intervention, individual or family therapy, psychiatric evaluation and medication management, according to the Dutchess County website.

As well as this, Family Services can provide group or individual therapy with integrated needs for adults over the age of 18.

Therapy, individual and group, at Family Services is provided through licensed therapists and counselors, who have been trained in how to approach each individualistic situation. They also have a team of experienced psychiatrists, psychiatric nurse practitioners and nurses, if someone is seeking medication or medical needs.

“There’s five, and those are public mental health clinics, which means that they should be able to accommodate people with any type of insurance, or no insurance,” said Niebuhr. “They also take, of course, Medicaid and Medicare.”

Regardless of a person’s income or insurance coverage, Family Services works hard to provide for anyone in need. Their goal is to ensure the community can have access to quality behavioral health support, without any sort of stigma attached to it.

Dutchess County’s Department of Mental Health has provided $205,000 in funding to support Family Services’ new location and bringing mental health services to the northern part of the county. According to the Dutchess County’s government website, this funding was part of a contract amendment, redirecting previous funds that Family Services received and to repurpose the funding in order to establish the much needed children’s behavioral health services in their new Northern Dutchess location.

If Dutchess County residents are unable to access any of their local facilities, there is an option to get services online. Telehealth amenities can be obtained through Zoom, based on the individual’s needs and an assessment done by the clinical team.

Currently, the insurances that Family Services accepts are: Medicaid, Medicare, Aetna, Beacon Health Options, Blue Cross Blue Shield, CDPHP, Empire Plan, Fidelis, MVP, UBH Optum and Wellcare. However, the insurance being accepted can be subject to change at any time, and should be checked prior to any appointment.

“I envision the clinics being sort of the backbone of our mental health system. And accessing that type of care is really important because if you’re getting care, you’re much less likely to end up in a crisis,” said Niebuhr. “And of course, we want to do everything we can to avoid a crisis. So if people can easily get the help they need when things aren’t as bad, then hopefully we would prevent them from ever being in a mental health crisis.”

To schedule an intake appointment, call 845-276-4600 or the non-urgent email: intake@familyservicesny.org.