Andrew Malekoff, the executive director and chief executive officer of the Roslyn Heights-based North Shore Child & Family Guidance Center, has been named a 2014 Outstanding Health Provider of the Year by the Nassau County Department of Human Services, Office of Mental Health, Chemical Dependency and Developmental Disabilities Services, officials announced Tuesday.
Malekoff will receive the award, in the category of delivering integrated care to families, during the fifth annual Conference on Co-Occurring Disorders at Hofstra University on Dec. 12.
“I am grateful to the Nassau County Department of Human Services for honoring me,” Malekoff said in a statement. “It is particularly meaningful to be recognized just days before the second anniversary of the Dec. 14 tragedy at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Conn. After the Newtown shooting there was not one parent in the United States who was able to escape the tyranny of imagining their child being murdered in their neighborhood school.”
Being honored reminds me about how much more needs to be done,” he added. “How many more children will be taken from us before lawmakers devote the same energy and resources it takes to launch their re-election campaigns to safeguarding our children by taking steps to prevent gun violence and provide adequate funding for community-based mental health centers to support the emotional well-being of all our children?”
Malekoff has been the head of the North Shore Child & Family Guidance Center since 2007. He joined the organization after graduating from Adelphi University in 1978 with a master’s degree in social work.
The North Shore Child & Family Guidance Center, which is located at 480 Old Westbury Road, works with children up to age 24 who come from troubled backgrounds or suffer from mental disorders, as well as their families.
The center seeks to treat depression and anxiety, developmental delays and learning difficulties, substance abuse, family crises stemming from illness, death, trauma and divorce, officials said. It also offers outpatient mental health counseling and teen drug abuse and prevention services.
