A new study confirms that finding and affording mental health care for Long Islanders has been a challenge since the start of the pandemic.

Mount Sinai South Nassau released a statement that shows more than 33% of Long Islanders who went looking for mental health care services found it challenging to find a provider.

"The biggest challenge was the inability to get an appointment for care or concern about not having their care covered by their insurance plan," says Dana Sanneman, of Mount Sinai South Nassau.

The Truth in Medicine Poll found that it was still hard for many people who had health insurance to cover most of the cost.

President of Mount Sinai South Nassau Dr. Adhi Sharma says there needs to be an aggressive expansion of mental health screening, prevention and intervention to meet the current and future demand for mental health help.

"When we get a signal from our brain that something, something should be stopped we don't always listen to them," Sharma says. "We ignore it, we try to override it, we try to use our resilience and in some instances that works, but when that doesn't work then we do need to take a step, which is to seek some kind of assistance."

The hospital's president says in addition to talking with a mental health professional, those who need help can also talk to a family member, a friend or a counselor at school.

Sharma says getting schools involved in the conversation when it comes to mental health is key because children spend most of their time like counselors, teachers and friends can be often first to notice if someone needs help.