Chenango Stories: Being there when it matters most

The morning sun was bearing down. As she got ready for the day she had no idea it would be a day that for many, would live in infamy.

The phone would ring but at the other end, no real connection was made. The voices could not be made clear and she thought some of the guys at the station were calling just to give her a hard time.

Dr. Sara Long has a long history of working closely with the New York Police Department and the morning of Sept. 11, 2001, she felt was no different. The guys would call on occasion to chat or kid around.

Sara says it wasn’t until someone at her office told her of the tragedy that she realized what the previous calls must have meant. With no time to lose, Sara knew what she had to do; she immediately headed to New York City.

Although this was a bigger disaster than Sara was accustomed to, her only thoughts were to get there and get to work. She says she has had a close tie with the NYPD for many years. Over the years she says gained a great respect for what they do.

Sara grew up in Brooklyn. Even as a young child Sara had the passion to work in medicine. She says people have always told her she was born to be a doctor. Her mother would take her to see patients in the psychiatric hospital and she would beg her mother to let the people out of the cages. Her goal, and one that she has achieved, has always been to re-open that cage for people she can help.

Sara’s education took her to universities including City University of New York, New York University, SUNY Empire and Stonybrook before earning a Ph.D. in psychology from Union Institute University. She has always been involved within Mental Health and pushed for years to have juvenile offenders analyzed better. She started in the Bronx prison system and then got involved upstate to participate in getting mental health services into the prison system. She also is one of the few forensic examiners in New York State.