State awards $25 million for disability health care programs

A $2.3 million state award for Riverhead may end up mattering far beyond Eastern Suffolk, because it points to one of the biggest gaps facing families who care for people with developmental disabilities: finding routine medical care that is actually equipped to serve them.

Long Island Select Healthcare in Riverhead received the award for its Eastern Suffolk Integrated Healthcare Access Expansion, a project that state officials described as the third-largest grant in the statewide round. The site at 833 East Main Street already provides occupational therapy, physical therapy and speech and language pathology, services that often sit at the center of care for patients with developmental disabilities. For Suffolk County families, that kind of local coordination can mean the difference between a manageable appointment and a trip that takes all day.

The money is part of a broader $25 million state investment spread across 30 providers statewide to create Regional Disability Health Clinics and improve access to physical health care for people with developmental disabilities. The grants were designed for Article 16 clinics, Article 28 clinics, Federally Qualified Health Centers, Rural Health Centers and free-standing hospital extension clinics, with priorities that included dental access, wheelchair-accommodating diagnostic spaces, sensory-friendly areas and specialty physical health services. State officials said the goal was to reach people in health care deserts, where specialized services are scarce or hard to navigate.

That policy shift reflects a basic reality for many Suffolk families. Care for someone with an intellectual or developmental disability often requires trained providers, longer visits, better communication support, help with sensory issues and reliable transportation. A routine exam can become a logistical problem if a practice is not built for that patient population. State officials and providers have said the health care system was not built with people with disabilities in mind, and the new grants are meant to close that gap.

Long Island Select Healthcare’s award gives that idea a concrete local address. Executive Director James Powell leads the Riverhead organization, and Aaron Clark, who has spoken about the grant, said it is about “equity, dignity, access” and about addressing health care disparities affecting people living with disabilities. At the state level, NYU Dentistry’s Oral Health Center for People With Disabilities received the largest single award, $5 million, underscoring how central dental care remains in the broader push.

For West Sayville families and others across Suffolk County, the measure of success will not be the size of the grant alone. It will be whether more patients can get care closer to home, with fewer barriers, shorter trips and clinics designed around their needs instead of around the limits of an old system.