Mental health, nurses shortage, Ukraine and border security, Huntington Station community center

More is needed for mental health care

Insurance companies’ provider lists, while important, are just one aspect impacting access to mental health care [“Mental health care gap,” News, Dec. 8]. Despite extensive lists online, many providers work limited hours — 10 to 15 hours a week — on top of part-time and even full-time roles elsewhere.

“Availability” on these lists often misrepresents actual accessibility, as a practitioner with a single opening on a specific day isn’t realistically available to many. Additionally, a lack of availability today doesn’t signify unavailability tomorrow. Rather than solely focusing on these lists, stakeholders — insurers, providers, clients — could collaboratively address this issue.

Potential solutions like universal insurance panel applications, supplemental reimbursement for weekend services, and many others could arise from this joint effort, enhancing access to mental health care.

— Dennis Dubey, Port Jefferson Station

The writer has been a practicing licensed psychologist for 41 years.

It is outrageous that people with physical health bills receive higher percentage payments than those with mental health bills. One of the sad results is that many people with severe mental health issues are not receiving necessary medical and/or pharmacological assistance.

That’s despite the many parity laws on the books. New York State requires equivalent payments, but the regulations are not enforced. This is one of several reasons that people with mental health concerns often don’t fill their related prescriptions.

Laws need to be passed: to mandate mental health parity, and to create a watchdog system to ensure that insurance companies, including government-sponsored insurance agencies, are in full compliance.

— David Sills, Oceanside

The writer is president of the Queens/Nassau chapter of the National Alliance on Mental Illness in Lake Success.

Pay faculty properly to gain more nurses

In my 50-plus years in nursing, I have seen many nurse shortages come and go [“Nurse shortage likely to worsen,” LI Business, Dec. 6]. The issues are often related to the shortage of qualified faculty but also to insufficient clinical placement sites and school budgets that don’t support the kind of simulation labs needed to practice.

The faculty shortage is not difficult to address with proper resources. Doctoral programs need federal and state support, and schools and colleges of nursing need to pay their faculty at a scale appropriate to their credentials and on par with clinical practitioners. A new graduate often earns more than an associate professor, which dissuades people from pursuing a teaching route.

— Harriet R. Feldman, Bellmore

I have a simple solution. The government should raise the caps on the annual visa allowances for persons entering this country. It would allow qualified nurses to enter this country and help with the problem.

To make foreign nurses wait for over two years before their visa applications can be reviewed and approved is ludicrous. It might be easier for them to enter across our southern border like the millions of migrants who never had to worry about a visa.

— Rick Hannsgen, West Islip

Giving aid to Ukraine doesn’t help border

Cathy Young’s column suggests political stunting regarding Ukraine aid [“GOP should reconsider on Ukraine aid,” Opinion, Dec. 8].

While most of us likely agree that Ukraine needs billions of taxpayer dollars to defend its border, the same can be said about our southern border.

Many Americans want the migrants’ influx to stop or slow dramatically. Thousands cross our border daily.

— Anthony Bordano, Middle Village

Community center waits for direction

For almost a decade, Huntington Station has been waiting for a community center. Instead, we have an outdoor storage site and parking lot [“Change of plans,” Our Towns, Dec. 1]. The James D. Conte Community Center was to have both indoor and outdoor spaces for athletics, the arts and community groups like the American Legion.

In 2014, $800,000 was budgeted to clean up the former armory on East Fifth Street, which now sits empty with plastic covering its window spaces. In the 2018 capital budget, $3.75 million was approved for construction.

There wasn’t enough money to continue because of the COVID-19 pandemic and funding issues, and there have been no estimates for a new envisioned steel field house, which is to include storage space.

The outside of the former armory already is being used for storage — for town vehicles, benches and debris — next to ball fields, a spray park and open green space.

Now, the town is trying to claw back grant money and repurpose it for the new field house. As a taxpayer and neighborhood resident, I would like to know who will benefit from future contracts.

— Eric Cammer, Huntington Station