Larchmont resident Bernadette Kingham-Bez, Senior Vice President for Behavioral Health Services at Saint Joseph’s Medical Center in Yonkers and Executive Director of St. Vincent’s Hospital Westchester, was named a recipient of the New York State Office of Mental Health (OMH) Commissioner’s Community Care Awards for 2021.
The awards recognize the extraordinary achievements of individuals and organizations who have furthered the OMH mission and made a positive contribution to the mental health system in their communities.
OMH Commissioner Dr. Ann Sullivan said, “Bernadette Kingham-Bez has been an exceptional partner and a great leader at Saint Joseph’s Medical Center and its Harrison campus, St. Vincent’s Hospital. She works closely with other partners in the community and has demonstrated extraordinary commitment throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, during which she worked to ensure that every client received the services they needed.”
Ms. Kingham-Bez said, “OMH’s support, partnership and guidance has enabled our behavioral health tem to respond creatively to community needs with new programs and residential services, despite many challenges during the past few years.”
Ms. Kingham-Bez currently services on the Board of Trustees of Burke Rehabilitation Hospital. She has had a leadership role in the founding of Hudson Valley Care Coalition (HVCC), a regional health home, and services on its Board. She also serves as Secretary of the Board of Montefiore’s Hudson Valley IPA. She is a resident of Larchmont.
The Community Care Awards were created in 2019 to highlight OMH’s partners and stakeholders in local communities across the state that are helping to identify and eliminate gaps in services and are working to build strong community-based behavioral healthcare systems.
Saint Joseph’s Behavioral Health Services has 192 inpatient psychiatry beds on its Yonkers and Harrison campus. Outpatient services include a 24/7 crisis prevention and response team; outpatient mental health services for children, adolescents and adults; outpatient addiction recovery services for adolescents and adults; partial hospital program; personalized recovery-oriented services (PROS) program; care coordination program; and an Assertive Community Treatment (ACT) team.
Offsite services in Westchester County include the St. Vincent’s Behavioral Health Center in White Plains, The Maxwell Institute in Tuckahoe (addiction), the Port Chester Recovery Center (addiction) in Port Chester and scattered-site supported housing.
In four boroughs of New York City, the Residential Services division manages services for more than 1,000 individuals in programs that range from transitional residences to permanent housing. In addition to the opioid treatment center in Yonkers, Saint Joseph’s also operates four other centers in Brooklyn and Queens. An ACT team, PROS program, and care coordination program also are based in Staten Island.
