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This is a time of change and it is how we face change that will define our future success along with how we weather the uncertainty that inevitably comes with it.
The Cambria County Behavioral Health/Intellectual Disabilities and Early Intervention Program, formerly known as Cambria County MH/MR, is entering its own time of change. In the spirit of open communications with our community, we wanted to share some planned changes that will be occurring over the next several months.
Cambria County has been a direct provider of outpatient psychiatric and therapy services with offices in both Johnstown and Ebensburg, and for many it would seem it has always been this way. But for many years, those services were contracted to the city/county clinic and it was only during the 1980s that the county endeavored to take on those responsibilities.
An outpatient psychiatric service that the county has been a direct provider of for just as many years is an adult partial hospitalization program, which serves adults 18 years and older, providing intensive outpatient services up to five days per week to individuals at an acute stage in their mental illness.
Both the outpatient psychiatric services as well as the partial hospitalization program are Department of Public Welfare-licensed programs, which require the employ of psychiatrists, psychologists and clinicians in order to remain in compliance with licensing regulations.
The annual cost to operate the county’s outpatient unit is approximately $1.4 million and the operating cost of the partial hospitalization program is about $400,000 annually, totaling $1.8 million combined.
The total operating costs for all mental health services including outpatient and partial hospitalization services is some $6 million a year, funded through a combination of state and federal allocations, county match and insurance reimbursement for eligible services.
And those state and federal allocations are dwindling, as has been noted recently in the news relating to the pending 2012 state budget.
As a result, Cambria County is taking proactive measures to absorb these funding reductions within the BH/ID/EI agency while ensuring that services are available in the community. The need for these services can and will be met through other providers within the county, similar to the model used by numerous other counties within our state. Thus the following changes are scheduled to occur:
• Effective July 1, Cambria County BH/ID will no longer directly provide outpatient psychiatric services.
• Effective Sept. 1, Cambria County BH/ID will no longer be a direct provider of a partial hospitalization program.
Any individuals with questions or who require a case manager’s assistance in transitioning to another service provider are encouraged to contact Cambria County BH/ID/EI at 535-8531 or (877) 268-9463.
Although there will be changes in the services provided, Cambria County BH/ID/EI remains committed to providing ongoing administrative oversight and case management support to individuals in Cambria County living with mental illness and in need of mental health support and services.
Your public servants,
Doug Lengenfelder,
Mark Wissinger,
Tom Chernisky
The Cambria County Board of Commissioners includes Doug Lengenfelder, Mark Wissinger and Tom Chernisky. They jointly write this monthly column on county issues.
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