Lebanon County officials say more state funds needed to address rising mental health costs

Lebanon County officials continue to feel the strain of rising mental health services costs, saying a significant increase in state funds are needed to address the problem.

Lebanon County Mental Health/Intellectual Disability/Early Intervention officials are projecting expenses at $8.78 million for the 2024-25 fiscal year, a 2.75% increase from the 2023-24 fiscal year. MH/ID/EI budget is projecting a $377,364 deficit agency-wide.

While MH/ID/EI is looking for ways to keep expenses to a minimum, administrator Holly Leahy said it will be difficult in the future to balance the budget without additional state funding.

"We have stretched our funding to the utmost, and we just can't stretch it further to do anything anymore," Leahy said.

Commissioners on June 20 approved 94 MH/ID/EI agency provider contracts for fiscal year 2024-25, totaling $5.82 million. Leahy said this is a $465,121 increase from the last fiscal year.

"If we slightly break that down to the three programs, overall our mental health contracts, which total $3,115,216, were increased by $262,043, or 9.2% over fiscal year 2023-24," she said. "This is due to increased housing programs."

Leahy added that the intellectual disabilities program contracts were more than $1.066 million, which was a decrease of $42,594 from last year. Early intervention contracts are more than $1.538 million, an increase of $226,666 last year.

"Mandated services must be included in our contracts, so the main service to increase is special instruction, which is almost always county-based funded as MA, or medical assistance, does not pay for this service," she said.

Officials are projecting more than $8.883 million in revenue the 2024/25 MH/ID/EI budget, an increase of $720,000 from the previous fiscal year. Leahy said more that $574,000 of that increase is mental health reinvestment funding from the HeathChoices system.

"I really must emphasize that these funds are not permanent," she said. "They are not long term, and this short term, time limited funding is a tremendous help to our budget, but does not address the ongoing need for permanent, sustainable mental health base funding."

State legislators approved $20 million increase in the 2023-24 state budget to support county-directed behavioral health programs. Leahy said that Lebanon County received only $187,000 of those funds.

"While we recognize that we did get an increase, $187,000 does not truly fund what is happening here," she said. "Again, $574,614 are short term, time limited HealthChoices funding, and without additional state funding it will be extremely difficult to balance the budget moving forward."

The last time state legislators increased mental-health based funding before this years budget was in 2006, according to Leahy. In 2012, mental health based funding was one of several service programs that took a 10% budget cut.

The county MH/ID/EI budget includes 600,000 in county funds to cover the required county match and the deficit to the mental health and intellectual development programs. If the county did not have the $574,000 in HealthChoices funding, officials said the cost to the county regarding the match and the deficit would be more than $1.339 million.

"Without additional funding, again, to address all the needs in the community, (MH/ID/EI) cannot expand or initiate any new services without additional base funding," Leahy said.

The County Commissioners Association of Pennsylvania has called for the General Assembly and Gov. Josh Shapiro for significant investment in mental health services, asking for an increase of $250 million for the 2024-25 fiscal year.

"Talk to anybody in any human service field, whether it's schools, nursing homes, prison (or) anywhere, the need continues to rise," Commissioner Michael Kuhn said at the commissioners . "So this is a drop in the bucket, but what it really means is that we're going to continue to have challenges in providing care that is needed."

The increasing cost of services is continuing to put a strain on numerous county agencies, with county administrator Jamie Wolgemuth citing the needs for mental health services at Children and Youth Services and the Lebanon County Correctional Facility.

"It's an ever increasing cost," he said. "The less it's addressed, the bigger the problems get, and the state last year threw a nickel at it."

County commissioners unanimously passed MH/ID/EI 2024-25 budget on June 20.

Residents looking for more information about the Lebanon County Mental Health/Intellectual Disability/Early Intervention programs can visit the county website at lebanoncountypa.gov/departments/mhidei or call their office at 717-274-3415.

Matthew Toth is a reporter for the Lebanon Daily News. Reach him at mtoth@ldnews.com or on X at @DAMattToth.

This article originally appeared on Lebanon Daily News: County officials say state funds needed for rising mental health costs