Great things are happening in the east of the health care world for the LBGTQ community.
The Edie Windsor Healthcare Center (EWHC), formerly known as the David E. Rogers, MD Center (in Southampton), officially reopened on June 11. Not only does it have a new location (Hampton Bays), but it will have an expanded facility and purpose – to serve as Long Island’s first comprehensive LGBTQ health center.
This means that in addition to continuing to provide health and care support and management for people living with HIV/AIDS and HIV testing through Rose Walton Services – a cornerstone of the facility since its opening in 1994 – the center will now include primary care services and expanded mental health services for all members of the LGBTQ community.
“I’m very excited about this.” said Judith Kasen-Windsor, widow of the late Edie Windsor, Southampton resident and LGBTQ pioneer who successfully paved the way for same-sex marriage in the United States. Windsor passed away suddenly in 2017, but her legacy lives on.
“When [Stony Brook Southampton Hospital] came to me to ask if they could rename the David Rogers Center, the HIV center for the past 20 to 25 years, to Edie Windsor Healthcare Center, I was thrilled,” Kasen-Windsor said. “It’s important to have things dedicated and named after women. But in renaming it, I wanted to expand services to LGBTQ youth, seniors, women, the transgender community, and in particular expand mental health services – I want all of Long Island to know these resources are there for them – if a child is struggling on the way out, there is a professional there to help them through this process.
Kasen-Windsor envisions the center as an excellent service connector with other LGBTQ services such as PFLAG, Callen Lorde, Services & Advocacy for GLBT Elders (SAGE), and the Hetrick-Martin Institute, which serves LGBTQ youth.
“We can connect you with resources in town and with services that you can’t even imagine,” said Kasen-Windsor, who is “super excited” about working with a transgender resource center in Islip.
The mission of the Edie Windsor Healthcare Center is clear: “to provide accessible, compassionate, comprehensive and state-of-the-art care to all members of the LGBTQ+ community and people living with HIV”.
But how do you provide targeted health care to a community that is often hidden away or fearful of discussing their personal lives and their medical and mental needs?
“We know that the LGBTQ community uses less health care and has higher health risks than normal in other populations,” said Robert S. Chaloner, chief executive of Stony Brook Southampton Hospital.
As plans for expansion and relocation developed between Stony Brook Medicine and Stony Brook Southampton Hospital, which oversees operations at the Edie Windsor Healthcare Centre, it became clear: there was a lack of data to understand size, age range and specific health care needs. of the LGBTQ population — “a challenge that exists both locally and nationally,” Chaloner said.
“We knew from quick and informal surveys that there was a need for primary care and a need for expanded mental health care, but there was a lack of specific data about our market,” Chaloner said. “People can be reluctant to talk about personal issues and a large part of the population is still not out of the closet. We wanted to respect their privacy but we still want to know their needs,” he said.
Chaloner, who is ‘thrilled’ with the new Edie Windsor Center because it is ‘bigger, more modern and also gives us the ability to provide more clinical services than the old space’, defined the particular challenge of providing care world-class healthcare to an underserved community.
“Our commitment is to provide an environment where we remove bias and barriers and open up access and ensure the right specialists are available,” Chaloner said. This goal has led to a partnership with Stony Brook Medicine to administer a new survey: Long Island’s First LGBTQ+ Community Health Needs Assessment Survey – a landmark study that will seek vital data and shape the future of health care. LGBTQ in Nassau and Suffolk counties.
Working with more than 20 partners, including the Suffolk County Health Department, Women’s Diversity Network and OLA of Eastern Long Island, the survey is part of an initiative “to provide the best health care possible and to ensure that the right specialists are available according to the needs of the population”, according to Chaloner.
“The LGBTQ Health Needs Assessment Survey is online, anonymous, and open to all LGBTQ adults ages 18 and older, including those who question their identity and who currently reside in Nassau counties or of Suffolk, Chaloner said. “Eligible respondents also include Long Island college, university, and technical school students 18 years of age or older, regardless of permanent address.”
The survey takes approximately 15-20 minutes to complete and the link will be distributed by partner organizations during Pride Month, until June 30. Respondents are encouraged to forward the survey link to their eligible friends and colleagues.
Meanwhile, at the new Edie Windsor Healthcare Center, staff and patients are buzzing with change.
Maureen Coley, a clinical social worker who has worked at the center for 20 years, provides counselling, therapy and case management to help patients navigate insurance and “access the kind of comprehensive care in a system that can be very complicated,” is excited about the new facility.
“It’s fantastic,” she said. “It’s bigger, it’s brighter, it’s a really nice place, more easily accessible and we can access other health services — trans health, addictions, mental health. We have a very good team here. We are now open to primary care and offer comprehensive care, all in-house. »
The center’s primary care is anchored around Dr. Eric Lella, the center’s medical director and board-certified family physician in neuromusculoskeletal medicine.
“We believe you should always start with a good primary care provider,” Chaloner said. “This person becomes the coach of your health care”,
Lella, an osteopathic physician who focuses on treating the whole person as an interconnected unit (mind, body, spirit) along with Dr. Eric Finn, an infectious disease specialist, and Dr. Paul Garson, a psychiatrist, are treating physicians. The longtime assistant to the center’s infectious disease physician is Jennifer Jolie (15).
“We are an LGBTQ affirmation practice,” Lella said. “We provide primary care services to anyone in the LGBTQ population, but we also provide primary care services to patients who are allies or people outside of that community – there is no discrimination backwards here. I have a lot of OMT patients – some who have HIV but aren’t LGBTQ, some who are straight and don’t have HIV. We are an open practice for the community and for anyone who wants to settle here.
Originally from New Jersey, Lella said he came east for Stony Brook Southampton Hospital’s “unique integrative residency program.” Lella has been with her husband for 8 and a half years. They married last year and live in Hampton Bays.
Lella is particularly excited about the center’s new location.
“The benefits are that we have radiology departments in this building and a number of different specialties and specialists, GI, allergist, cardiology – all under the Stony Brook Medicine roof.”
He describes the staff of 10 as “absolutely wonderful – some of the coolest, nicest people I’ve ever had the chance to work with”.
Jimmy Mack, a Southampton resident and EMT volunteer who has worked at the center since it opened and who tested positive for HIV in 1987, said the reopening and further expansion is both personal and emotional.
“They literally saved my life on multiple occasions,” Mack said. “The new place is bigger, better and beautifully located. I’m so excited about this. Everyone who works there is like family – that’s how they treat you. I can’t say enough good things about them. We are blessed to have them here.
For Kasen-Windsor, the support of the center is crucial. To that end, she and Southampton City Supervisor Jay Schneiderman have created the Windsor Heart Project – a heart-shaped stone platform of small interlocking hearts on the lawn outside the Windsor Hall. town of Southampton, where many couples are married. Proceeds from the purchase of a heart (where you can personalize an inscription) directly benefits the Edie Windsor Health Care Center.
June 20 will be proclaimed “Edie Windsor Day” in New York City – a fitting tribute to Windsor’s birthday.
“It’s not just about Edie, it’s about the LGBTQ community, it’s about women,” Kasen-Windsor said. “Edie was a genius, she coded, she worked for IBM. She was in the closet all those years, she was very low key until probably the late 1980s.”
The goal of the center is to open doors to expanded care while respecting privacy.
“Sometimes, even in the East End of Long Island, people feel like it’s a small town and people want to know that their privacy is protected and they can feel safe and comfortable. where they come for care,” Coley said. “We really try to emphasize that we are open and welcome and that we will help you and protect your privacy as well.”
Chaloner said “we will always accept donations” but stressed “the importance of word of mouth from the start” in supporting the center.
“We want to see it grow and we love the feedback,” he added. “Visibility is very important. Over the next few weeks, we’re encouraging people to take the completely anonymous survey – the more data we have, the better we can plan for the future and work with our partner organizations to create better services.
The Edie Windsor Health Care Center is located at 182 W. Montauk Hwy. Building B, Suite D, Hampton Bays, NY. (631) 287-5990. For more information, visit stonybrookmedicine.edu/LGBTQ. For more information on the Long Island LGBTQ Community Health Needs Assessment Survey, visit stonybrookmedicine.edu/LGBTQ/survey.
Order forms for the Edie Windsor Heart Project are available online at bit.ly/2SGMtCG. For more information, contact [email protected] or call 631-283-6055.
