On a recent Thursday, Dana Pope stood in awe of a room at the soon-to-be-opened Community Crisis Center in Hicksville.

The family room, which the staff calls the "in the clouds" space, features taupe walls to promote calmness, a colorful hot air balloon mural, a video game table to keep children experiencing mental crisis engaged, and a couch so their families can remain by their side. All of it felt like a world apart from Pope’s first emergency room hospitalization for suicidal ideation at 13, which she described as "the scariest experience of my life."

Hospital officials, she said, took her clothes, kicked her mother out and made her wait 48 hours before she could see visitors. She ended up doing schoolwork in the psychiatric ward because of her monthslong stay. Now, Pope, 52, believe

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