The cost of a good plan
Wolf must provide cost of new mental health initiative
Arobust program to address issues of mental health in Pennsylvania, announced recently by Gov. Tom Wolf, could mark a major turning point in the effort to tackle one of the most dire issues facing the commonwealth. But Mr. Wolf’s proposal, known as Reach Out PA, currently has one glaring question mark: funding.
When announcing the initiative on Jan. 2, Mr. Wolf spoke of ending the stigma around mental health with a bevy of approaches. This would include, among other proposals, new state regulations on health insurance, getting more social workers into schools and training state workers on suicide prevention.
But Mr. Wolf was not clear about the cost of Reach Out PA and how the money required for the program to work will be secured. Pennsylvania’s current mental health services, the scope of which is far less ambitious than what is proposed under Reach Out PA, are already overworked and lack the appropriate resources. For Reach Out PA to meet its lofty and laudable goals, it will need a significant amount of funding.
The Legislature, for its part, should understand that this would be money well spent. Pennsylvania has not been immune to nationwide trends that indicate mental illness and suicide rates, especially among young people, are on the rise. From 1999 to 2016, the suicide rate in the commonwealth increased by 34%. In 2017, about 15 per 100,000 people in the state died by sucide. In some counties, that rate is even higher; in 2017, Elk County had a suicide rate of 23 per 100,000 people.
A major factor contributing to this issue is a lack of access to adequate mental health resources, an issue that is particularly pronounced in the state’s rural counties. Pennsylvania has 179 mental health care practitioners per 100,000 people, a figure that lags significantly behind the national average of 214 per 100,000. The rate is even worse in counties like Elk, Adams and Mifflin, where some citizens must drive hours to see a therapist.
Schools throughout the state have also been suffering from both increased mental illness incidence and a lack of resources. The Allentown School District, for instance, referred 700 students annually to mental health services about 10 years ago. Now, the district refers 3,000 students a year. If schools continue to struggle to keep up with the mental health needs of their students, the consequences could be dire.
Tens of thousands of Pennsylvanians are in need of better mental health resources, and Mr. Wolf is right to want to help them. But Reach Out PA cannot merely be a feel-good initiative that looks good on a campaign website. The program must have teeth; it must effect change. Lives are at stake.
The governor and his staff should work expeditiously, in collaboration with mental health experts in the state and throughout the nation, to come up with a dollar figure that will make a real difference in addressing Pennsylvania’s mental health crisis. And the Legislature should do its part by endorsing and supporting that effort.
Only then will those citizens throughout the state, long suffering without the resources they need, have a chance at moving toward a better life.