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AUGUST 13 - 19, 2026

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All the news of the Five Towns

to care for mental health

vices has centralized many of its behavioral health services in the new Walsh Ambulatory As anxiety, depression and Pavilion in Far Rockaway. The substance use disorders contin- second floor houses both the ue to rise across the Five Towns Community Mental Health and Rockaway peninsula, Epis- Center, which provides care for c o p a l H e a l t h S e r v i c e s i s children, adolescents and adults, and the expanding its Wellness and behavioral health Recovery Center, programs to ensure serving adults 18 residents receive and older with a treatment before higher level of outthey reach a crisis. patient support. According to The expansion is EHS, about 20 perpart of a broader cent of residents in effort to integrate the Rockaways live behavioral health with a mental illwith primary care ness, yet many while reducing the never seek treatstigma often associment because of ated with seeking stigma, limited psychiatric treatawareness of availment. able services or dif- DR. ANDREW “I think it just ficulty accessing SINGER normalizes that care. Adult and pediatric mental health is Queens Commupsychiatrist, Episcopal p a r t o f h e a l t h , ” nity District 14, Health Servoces said Dr. Andrew which includes Far Singer, an adult and Rockaway, also faces a shortage of mental pediatric psychiatrist who has health providers, while rates of treated patients at Episcopal psychological distress, poverty Health Services for more than and behavioral health-related two decades. “Patients are comemergency department visits ing into the same building for primary care, pediatrics and exceed city averages. To help address those chal- behavioral health. It reinforces lenges, Episcopal Health SerCoNtiNuEd oN pAgE 8

By MELISSA BERMAN

mberman@liherald.com

Courtesy Nat Etrog

For more than 40 years, Atlantic Beach resident Nat Etrog has volunteered to keep the community informed about safety and aware of the dangers around the water.

A.B.’s Nat Etrog: 40 years as Parks and Beach chairman By AIDAN WARSHAVSKY awarshavsky@liherald.com

Since Atlantic Beach’s incorporation as a village in 1962, there have been six mayors — but not much is said about the people who volunteer alongside them, like resident Nat Etrog, who has served all of those mayors. Since he was 6, Etrog, 80, has been around water. Growing up in Fresh Meadows and Forest Hills, in Queens, he spent his childhood summer days at Jones Beach’s Zach’s Bay, where his father, the Rev. Chaim Israel Etrog, taught him how to swim. As a teen, Nat swam and ran track at Jamaica High

School, graduating in 1962. In college, he rowed on Boston University’s crew team as a freshman before stepping away to focus on his studies. In the summers, Etrog was a lifeguard in Atlantic Beach, commuting from his family’s home in Park Slope, Brooklyn. After graduating from BU in 1967, he earned a master’s degree in social work from Yeshiva University in 1969. When it was time to settle down, Etrog knew where he wanted to be: Atlantic Beach. “I had always loved the village,” he said. “Working here, obviously, wasn’t the same as living here. But when it came time to CoNtiNuEd oN pAgE 9

ental illness should be treated no differently than diabetes, asthma or heart disease.