Mental health services face cuts
Counties respond to less funding
HARRISBURG - Counties are responding to state budget cuts for mental health services by limiting outpatient visits, cutting family support programs and closing clubhouses that offer psychiatric services among other belt-tightening moves, a county program administrator told a House committee hearing Tuesday.
These decisions are being made as counties learn their specific state allocations for mental health programs for fiscal 2012-13 and wait to find out which of them will participate in a new state block grant program for managing human services programs, said Christopher Wysocki speaking on behalf of the County Commissioners Association of Pennsylvania. Mr. Wysocki administrators Juniata Valley Tri-County Behavioral and Developmental Services.
"When community supports for the mentally ill are cut, we project increases in hospitalization and emergency use and increases in the number of mentally ill individuals in the prison population," he said.
The Human Services Committee heard testimony from county officials, advocates and professionals about the 10 percent cut in state aid in fiscal 2012-13 for county-run human services programs, the end of the state General Assistance program and the implementation of the new block grant.
"The area that is most in danger of complete collapse is outpatient services," said Anne Leisure, director of legislative services for the Pennsylvania Community Providers Association.
A PCPA survey of service providers found that one-third have closed an outpatient clinic or satellite office, she said.
Outpatient clinics are the initial and often sole source of mental health treatment for thousands of people and are less expensive than inpatient care and hospital stays, said Ms. Leisure.
The 10 percent cut is hurting older Pennsylvanians who need age-appropriate services to cope with depression, anxiety and dementia, said Rebecca May-Cole, executive director of the Pennsylvania Behavioral Health and Aging Coalition.
"The older adult gets lost in the shuffle," she said.
The end of the GA cash grant program which had provided a $205 monthly stipend to nearly 70,000 Pennsylvanians is devastating to individuals on the road to mental health recovery, said Debbie Plotnick, advocacy director for the Mental Health Association of Southeastern Pennsylvania.
Those individuals had used the $205 to pay rent or make co-payments on prescriptions, she added.
The Department of Public Welfare has authority to approve human services block grant programs in 20 counties. Thirty of the state's 67 counties, including Lackawanna, Luzerne and Wayne, applied last month to participate.
A committee member, Rep. Eddie Day Pashinski, D-121, Wilkes-Barre, joined others in calling for more tracking of the impact of state aid cuts.
Rep. Sheryl Delozier, R-88, Camp Hill, drew attention to state budget increases to reduce waiting lists for individuals with mental disabilities.
Contact the writer: rswift@timesshamrock.com