OUT EAST END
Edie Windsor Healthcare Center Opens on Long Island
New LGBTQ health hub named after late trailblazer
BY ANGELA LAGRECA
Big things are happening
out east in the world of
healthcare for the LBGTQ
community.
The Edie Windsor Healthcare
Center (EWHC), formerly known
as the David E. Rogers, M.D. Center
(in Southampton), offi cially reopened
on June 11. It not only has
a new location (Hampton Bays), it
will have an expanded facility and
purpose — to serve as Long Island’s
fi rst comprehensive LGBTQ
Health Center.
That means that in addition to
continuing to provide support and
health and care management to
people living with HIV/AIDS and
HIV testing through The Rose Walton
Services — a cornerstone of the
facility since it opened 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 it.” said
Judith Kasen-Windsor, widow of
the late Edie Windsor, a Southampton
resident and LGBTQ trailblazer
who successfully paved the way for
same-sex marriage in the United
States. Windsor died 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 last 20-25 years, to the 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 the
services to LGBTQ youth, elders,
women, the transgender community,
and particularly expand the
mental health services — I want
all of Long Island to know these
resources are there for them — if
a kid is struggling in coming out,
there’s a professional there to help
them through that process.”
Kasen-Windsor envisions the
center as a great connector of services
to other LGBTQ services such
as PFLAG, Callen Lorde, Services &
Advocacy for GLBT Elders (SAGE),
Edie Windsor in September 2016.
and the Hetrick-Martin Institute,
which serves LGBTQ youth.
“We can connect you with the
resources in the city and with services
that you can’t even possibly
imagine,” said Kasen-Windsor who
is “super excited” about a collaboration
with a transgender resource
center in Islip.
The mission of the Edie Windsor
Healthcare Center is clear: “to
provide accessible, compassionate,
comprehensive, state of the
art care to all members of the LGBTQ+
community and to people
living with HIV infection.”
But how do you provide targeted
healthcare to a community that is
often hidden or fearful about discussing
their personal lives and
medical and mental needs?
“We do know that the LGBTQ
community utilizes healthcare less
and has health risks that are higher
than normal in other populations,”
said Robert S. Chaloner, chief administration
offi cer at Stony Brook
Southampton Hospital.
As the expansion and relocation
plans developed between Stony
Brook Medicine and Stony Brook
Southampton Hospital, which
oversees the operations of the Edie
Windsor Healthcare Center, it became
clear: There was a lack of
data to understand the size, age
DONNA ACETO
range and specifi c health care
needs of the LGBTQ population —
“a challenge that exists on both the
local and national level,” Chaloner
said.
“We knew through quick, informal
surveys there is a need for
primary care and the need for expanded
mental health care, but
there was lack of specifi c data in
our market,” Chaloner said. “People
may be hesitant to talk about
personal issues and a large part of
the population still isn’t out of the
closet. We wanted to respect their
privacy but we still want to know
their needs,” he said.
Chaloner, who is “thrilled” about
the new Edie Windsor Center, because
it is “bigger, more modern and
also gives us the ability to do more
clinical services than the old space,”
framed the particular challenge of
providing world class healthcare to
an underserved community.
“Our commitment is to provide
an environment where we take
away the biases and barriers and
open up access and make sure the
right specialists are available,” Chaloner
said. That goal led to a partnership
with Stony Brook Medicine
to administer a new survey: The
fi rst LGBTQ+ Community Health
Needs Assessment Survey on Long
Island — a landmark study that
will seek vital data and shape the
future of LGBTQ healthcare in
Nassau and Suffolk Counties.
In conjunction with more than
20 partners, including the Suffolk
County Department of Health,
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 make sure the right
specialists are available depending
on the needs of the population,” according
to Chaloner.
“The LGBTQ Health Needs Assessment
Survey is online, anonymous,
and open to all LGBTQ
adults age 18 years and older, including
those questioning their
identity and who currently reside
in either Nassau or Suffolk counties,
Chaloner said. “Eligible respondents
also include college,
university, and technical school
students on Long Island who are
18 years or older, regardless of
their permanent address.”
The survey takes approximately
15-20 minutes to complete and the
link will be distributed by the partnership
organizations during Pride
Month, through June 30. Respondents
are encouraged to forward
the survey link to eligible friends
and colleagues.
Meanwhile, at the new Edie
Windsor Healthcare Center, the
staff and patients are buzzing
about the changes.
Maureen Coley, a clinical social
worker who has been with the center
for 20 years providing counseling,
therapy, and case management
to help patient navigate insurance
and “get access to 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 location,
more easily accessible and
we are able to access other health
services — trans health, substance
abuse, mental health. We have a
very good team here. We are now
open to primary care and offer comprehensive
care — all in house.”
➤ EDIE WINDSOR, continued on p.37
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