CLARION, Pa. (EYT) — Facing a crumbling mental health system, Clarion County Commissioners reviewed the need for support during both their work session and regular meeting on Tuesday morning.

(Pictured above: Clarion County Treasurer Karyn and Commissioners Ed Heasley and Ted Tharan listen to Dennis Bembenic, of The Meadows Psychiatric Center, about mental health needs.)

Dennis Bembenic, community relations liaison with the Meadows, a private psychiatric center in Centre Hall, requested commissioners to consider proclaiming May as mental health month.

Commissioners Ted Tharan, Wayne Brosius, and Ed Heasley had been planning a proclamation, and Bembenic provided some insight on the current landscape of mental health issues in Pennsylvania.

“I’m representing a whole cohort of mental health professionals, and we were trying to make an outreach to the public,” Bembenic said. “We’ve been approaching the teenage population through social media, and we’re hoping newspapers also pick up on the issues.”

According to Bembenic, one in four adults and one in five children experience mental health issues each year. Sixty-one percent of adults have experienced at least one traumatic event in their lifetime, but half of all mental health disorders begin before age 14, whereas 70 to 90 percent of individuals have a significant reduction of symptoms and improved quality of life when accepting mental health treatment.

Bembenic added that every citizen can help end the stigma of mental health and mental illness.

Asked if there has been an increase in juvenile incidents since the pandemic or during the pandemic, Bembenic said they have decreased.

“The data we get is usually from the CDC, and usually it’s lagging two years, but I was just meeting with the gentlemen from Utah who is starting a group called the Hope Squad, in DuBois. They are a nationwide organization, sort of anti-bullying. His data suggests that during the pandemic if you go judging by suicide, the children and adolescent level has decreased by three percent because there’s been more family bonding.”

“While that is one of the positives, on the inpatient side, we are seeing a highly aggressive patient come in, delaying any kind of mental health outpatient treatment. And, by the time they get to us, they’re highly aggressive, and to compensate, their length of stay is increasing.”

Length of treatment can vary, but the hospital stay is 16 days, up from 14. Patients are then discharged to the local outpatient provider at that point.

There is also a shortage of beds in psychiatric hospitals for adolescents.

“An acute shortage. That’s why I’m canvassing more and more…The shortage ‘of beds’ is due to a shortage of staff, nurses, and what we call mental health technicians. We have to maintain ratios for treatment and obviously for the protection of staff, as well as the patients. We were having a difficult time hiring enough people to maintain the beds.

“Right now, our hospital is operating at about 60 percent capacity. Clarion is roughly 75 or 80 percent. It’s a struggle. So, right now, the person in Clarion might not have a bed, and then all of a sudden there’s a search throughout the state. They may end up in Sharon, or they might end up in a Philadelphia site.”

At the other end of the spectrum for mental health needs, Clarion County Commissioners approved a resolution requesting appropriate funding to support the crumbling mental health system in the fiscal year 2022-2023 state budget.

The following statements were included in the resolution:

• Counties provide essential community-based health mental health services such as crisis intervention, community residential programs, family-based support, and outpatient care, which are critical to the well-being of our constituents and our communities.

• As the providers of community-based health mental health services counties are seeking demands for mental health services in communities at Foxwood state federal-state funding levels and without adequate and sustainable funding, counties may not be able to meet the mental health needs of some of our most vulnerable residents.

• In 2012, the Commonwealth cut $84 million that counties used to fund programs for people with intellectual disabilities, mental health challenges, and other needs for some programs to close and putting the human services system into a vulnerable state.

• Membership of the County Commissioners Association of Pennsylvania (CCAP) made the top priority of the Association advocacy in 2022 the “Appropriate Funding to Support the Crumbling Mental Health System.”

• State funding has lagged far behind the needs and caseloads for years, which has negatively affected services while also putting tension on communities and local budgets.

• The Center for Rural Pennsylvania published a report on Suicide Trends and Prevention in Rural Pennsylvania Counties and Schools and key findings included a steep rise in suicide in Pennsylvania over the past two decades, and that the increase was greater in rural communities.

• Governor Wolf’s initial budget proposal included supporting the behavioral health needs of Pennsylvania by investing $36.6 million in additional funds and county mental health-based funds on top of $75 million in federal funds for recruitment and retention payments to qualifying home and community-based service providers, as well as $80.8 million to provide services for individuals with intellectual disabilities and or autism currently on the emergency waitlist.

• Clarion County has invested in community-based mental health services that coordinate and invest in programs and services that meet the needs of challenges of local communities, including inpatient psychiatric hospitalization, outpatient therapy, outpatient psychiatry/medication management, blended case management, certified peer specialist, supportive housing, psychiatric rehabilitation, play therapy, intensive behavioral health services, family-based mental health services, and multi systematic therapy.

• Counties will need collaboration between the legislature and administration to work closely with them on a targeted, strategic investment of dollars in the community mental health services at the county level in order to continue the existing safety net and bolster the availability of mental health services to those who need them as vital steps in the right direction.