APPROACHING 100, PENINSULA COUNSELING CENTER, LONG ISLAND'S OLDEST MENTAL HEALTH CLINIC, HAS ITS ROOTS IN HISTORY & COMMUNITY & EYES ON FUTURE

Rapid Change is Affecting All Health Care Organizations. In PSCH, We've Found a Non-Profit Sponsor that Can Help Us Adapt, Stay Financially Strong, and Grow Our Services to meet the needs of the communities of Southwest Nassau and Queens Counties.

- Dr. John Kastan, Executive Director, Peninsula Counseling Center

Peninsula Counseling Center, or PCC, serving the Southwest Nassau community, today announced a sponsorship relationship with PSCH, one of the region's leading providers of comprehensive services for people with developmental, psychological and behavioral disabilities. In so doing, PCC joins Suffolk's Pederson-Krag Center in uniting with PSCH to form a growing regional network now stretching from New Jersey to Suffolk County of behavioral/mental health providers finding new economies and broadening their services to adapt to the new rules of the changing health care environment. The combined entities have an annual operating budget of approximately $130 million.

John Kastan, PhD, PCC Executive Director, said: "Recent healthcare redesign and Medicaid reform in New York State require cutting-edge responses to the very challenging adapt-or-perish business environment created for community-based behavioral health agencies like PCC.

"To fulfill our mission to provide accessible and high-quality essential services to our communities, we need to join forces regionally, reduce costs, and provide broader services and better treatment outcomes. We all need to incorporate smart services, helpful smart technologies, and develop smart responses to frequent funding changes. By doing many of these things on a network scale with the expertise that PSCH brings, they can be done affordably with the added benefit of all the network members' experience."

Jay Greenbaum, outgoing President, Board of Directors of PCC, said: "With the ever-growing need for our mental health and chemical dependence services and the excellent reputation we enjoy in the communities we serve, the Board decided to enter into this strategic alliance with a larger multi-service behavioral health organization, PSCH, to ensure the future of PCC."

Peninsula Counseling Center, established in 1913, is the oldest and largest mental health and chemical dependence counseling service in Nassau County. PCC's professional staff provides caring and confidential counseling for people of all ages in seven languages in a caring environment.

Under the new agreement with PSCH:

• PCC will retain its name and identity, and will continue to have its own Board of Directors.
• John Kastan, PhD, will continue as Executive Director of PCC and also have a role in the senior management of PSCH as Vice President of Strategic Initiatives, across the growing PSCH system.
• Other benefits of this arrangement include reduced operating costs, new access for PCC to technical resources, new ability to establish and expand programs, and potential increases in reimbursement rates from insurance companies, as it will be part of a larger organization that can leverage its breadth of services in negotiations.

Dr. Kastan has also served in critical positions at Manhattan's St. Vincent's Hospital and St. Luke's-Roosevelt Hospital Center, as well as Merit Behavioral Care Corporation, and was Assistant Commissioner for Planning and Project Management at the New York City Department of Mental Health, Mental Retardation and Alcoholism Services. He is a member, appointed by the Governor, of the State Mental Health Services Council and serves as Vice President, Board of Directors, of the New York State Council on Community Behavioral Healthcare.

PSCH President & CEO Alan M. Weinstock, MPA, MS, said, "As a result of this alliance, PCC as well as Pederson-Krag and PSCH will be able to reduce many operating costs through consolidation and economies of scale, gain access to more sophisticated IT and other technical resources few community-based clinics can afford and establish new and expanded services in partnership with and with the assistance of PSCH. Our system will now stretch from New York City east through Suffolk County and, working with our new colleagues, we will achieve high quality outcomes and develop innovative approaches to care."