As of Saturday, the 939 designation expires for the Brooks-TLC Hospital System in the city of Dunkirk. A 939 state designation allows a hospital or a facility to accept mental health patients. The facility cannot turn the individual away and it has to have the staff necessary to treat the individuals

The designation originally belonged to Lakeshore Hospital in Irving where patients with mental health symptoms were treated regularly. When Lakeshore closed in February of 2020, the designation was passed on to the Dunkirk location, which has since decided to let it go and no longer aid in mental health episodes, save for those that involve medical issues.

In response to that, Dunkirk Police Chief David Ortolano along with Dunkirk Fire Chief Mike Edwards set up a system that will now serve the area for people suffering from mental health episodes.

“There’s a whole new system that’s gradually going to start being phased in on May 1. The county is doing a lot of work on this,” Ortolano said at the public safety meeting this month. “There’s going to be some services available as of May 1 at the county office building (located on the corner of Central Avenue and Third Street).”

Under this new program from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. Monday through Thursday and 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. on Friday they will have people immediately available, no appointment needed at the second floor of the building.

“The overall plan is they’re going to have a flycar system in place Monday to Friday from 8 a.m. until midnight where they’ll have a counselor and psychiatric doctor to man this flycar for all calls involving mental health. It’s going to be a crisis intervention fly car,” stated Ortolano.

People who are a serious threat to themselves or others will be taken immediately to UPMC in Jamestown, but for other cases the flycar is expected to be a lifeline in these situations.

“I’ve identified several people that we have on a regular basis that have mental health issues, it’s a huge problem that people think doesn’t exist, but it really does,” Ortolano added. “I’m hoping that we can get people that really don’t need to go to WCA or ECMC that we can get them counseling services that they need right then and there.”