Counties across the commonwealth are pulling from their savings or taking out loans to fund human services. However, even when the state budget does get passed—the mental health networks in communities are not well.

Pennsylvania cut their mental health service funding by 10% back in 2012—and flat funded the program until last budget.

State lawmakers increased funding by $20 million in the 2024/25 budget, and Democratic Governor Josh Shapiro proposed another $20 million increase this year.
Still- a decade of flat funding has resulted in bare bones programs in communities.

"I don't think you'll find a county anywhere that won't tell you, that we're all suffering with mental health crisis,” said Eric Henry, the chair of the Crawford County Commissioners.

Mental health funds are given to counties, who distribute them to mental health organizations; some groups give clinical care to people who don’t have insurance for therapy. Some organize support groups and classes.

With less funding, community rooted services are cut and it can take months to get clinical care.

"We find ourselves going farther and farther out of our county and even our region to find providers to provide this care,” Henry said.

"The same services back in, 2013 let's say, cost vastly more now. Even though there's not [new] cuts in funding,” said Kathy Quick, the executive director of Pennsylvania Mental Health Consumers Association. “You can't pay people $10 an hour anymore or $12 an hour."

When people can’t get care, they end up in crisis. Sometimes that means a hospital stay. More and more, it can mean getting caught up in the criminal justice system

“We are now putting people with mental illness in prison,” Quick said.

Henry said as counties lack the funds to build up mental health service systems— they are also being overwhelmed with costs at prisons.

“They’re challenged with mental health inmates, who would be in another program— but those programs have been cut,” Henry said. “They have a lot of mental health cases in their jail, that there… there is no other place for these people to go."

 

A Better Way

Quick says that mental health funding shouldn’t all go towards clinical care. Right now, worker shortages in professions like therapist and psychiatrist can lead to 3 month waits for appointments.

“If someone says they are struggling with suicidal thoughts, and they’re told they can’t see a therapist for three months and ‘you figure it out between now and then'. That's pretty dumb. And it's actually pretty harmful to human beings,” Quick said.

PMHCA advocates that community services rooted in recovery are the key. Mentorship, support groups, classes— when these are available, a person can get the support they need until they get the clinical appointment to potentially get medications.

They might even find they need less clinical solutions because of those other supports.

“If we're very cautious about how we're spending money, my suggestion would be to spend on recovery oriented services, that help people actually get better and stay better,” Quick said. “And, you know, offset that with the clinical services. I'm not saying we don't need them. I'm saying we need to work together."

The organization also advocates for more of a “recovery” focus in mental health services.

“I think people have a misconception that ‘I get a diagnosis and I'm going to be sick and a liability on the system for the rest of time’,” Quick said." 'I'm going to have to take medicines for the rest of my life. I'm going to have to see a psychiatrist for the rest of my life’."

Quick says that research is clear; people do recover.

"We find ways to manage symptoms, to get ourselves stable and get into that life that we want,” Quick said. "We can have children, and jobs, and lives and homes and do anything we want to do."

If people have options for support on their bad days, fewer may end up in worst case scenarios. And if community options are reinforcing belief about recovery and stabilizing in life; more people will see long term abundance.

"I learned that I wasn't the only one with some of these things that happened to me and some of the problems that I had,” Quick said, who is living in recovery.