Cumberland and Perry counties’ crisis of mental health funding was the topic of a series of town halls hosted by Cumberland County in recent weeks. The third and final town hall was hosted Monday, May 1, in Shippensburg. 

County officials were joined by school district personnel, law enforcement and others to discuss the imbalance between the county’s growing population and the state’s inaction on properly funding mental health resources. 

“It’s become much more challenging to be able to address and meet the needs of our community,” Cumberland-Perry Mental Health administrator Annie Strite observed. 

“[That’s] why we’re here this evening, so we can make sure our community is fully aware of the need that’s represented here, and how we as a community can reach out to our legislators and inform them that the needs of our community are not being addressed,” Strite added.

Cumberland County is the fastest growing county in the commonwealth, achieving 10.2% growth from 2010 to 2020, and another 3.5% between 2020 and 2022. Meanwhile, state funding for the county’s mental health system, run jointly with Perry County, has decreased from over $11 million in 2009 to $10.5 million in 2023. 

Strite addressed the lack of state funding, explaining that the Cumberland-Perry Mental Health services will have a $2.5 million deficit for fiscal year 22-23. This deficit would necessitate cutting services to save costs. 

“We already have many unaddressed needs in our community. If we have to cut services, we’re very concerned about the outcome,” Strite said. 

Louis Bianco, a member of the Mental Health Advisory Board, spoke on his own struggles with mental health and his path toward recovery. 

“None of this would have been possible without treatment,” Bianco said. “None of this would have been possible without hope, grit and resilience, all traits that were taught to me in the programs that I attended. None of this would have been possible without county-funded services.”

Addressing the need for mental health services in Cumberland and Perry counties, Bianco said, “Who else is out there at this moment, suffering as I have suffered? Who else is out there right now, in need of those same services?”

Child and Adolescent Service System Program (CASSP) coordinator Megan Johnston addressed the mental health crisis among children. “Twenty percent of [sixth- and 10th-graders] are saying that they’re self-harming as a way to cope,” Johnston said. She reported that 30% of eighth, 10th- and 12th- graders agreed with the statement “Sometimes I feel life isn’t worth it.”

Paul Bigham, a representative from Mechanicsburg Area School District, discussed how unaddressed mental health needs act as an obstacle to effective education. 

“If they’re distracted, or have other things that are going through their mind or have other issues that they’re trying to deal with in order to be able to access their learning, it serves as a barrier,” he said. 

Detective Matthew Johnston, a police officer in North Middleton Township, described his experiences with serving as a de facto social worker. 

“Our first notion is to lock them up, because that’s how we handle a situation,” Johnston said. As law enforcement, like [Bigham] said in the schools, we are more reactive [as opposed to proactive]. We just want to close it out and move on to the next. That does a disservice to individuals that are crying for help.”

Becky Parthemore, a New Cumberland resident on the panel, shared her story as a family member of someone suffering from severe bipolar disorder and the support their family received from county services. 

“Some of the programs that [her son] has been in through the county, our family could not have done without,” she said. 

Parthemore was asked what her family’s story would have looked like if the county’s services never existed. 

“If he didn’t receive the support system he has, he would probably be in prison, or not with us anymore.”

Cumberland County Commissioners have shown a commitment to addressing the issue. Commissioners Gary Eichelberger, Jean Foschi and Vince DiFilippo were in attendance, and offered their own comments. 

“We need to create awareness. We need to create understanding, and we need for more people to understand that when we talk about consumers of mental health services, it's not a matter of being ‘those people,’ who are easily dismissed,” Commissioner DiFilippo said. “It’s everyone, it’s all of us — families, the individuals themselves. There’s so many affected that it does reflect the entire community, and it's got to become a community issue.”

Commissioner Foschi addressed the state’s accountability to consider the issue, saying, “I don’t believe most of our delegation understands that this is a state obligation, that they are obligated to fund this.”

Commissioner Eichelberger reinforced others’ appeals to contact legislators, saying, “I personally am not going to support any fund-cutting for our mental health services, but we’re going to need the state’s help. As [Commissioner Foschi] said, it’s their damn responsibility to fund most of this,” he said. 

Doris Hagemann, the evening’s moderator, closed the evening’s discussion by asking the audience to reach out to legislators, write letters to newspaper editors, call local TV stations and speak to anyone who would listen. She added, “We need the circle of advocacy to grow.”

Strite made a quick addition before the town hall was adjourned, advertising that State Sen. Greg Rothman of the 34th District will have an open house on May 18 from 5 p.m. to 7 p.m. at his Shippensburg office, located at 81 Walnut Bottom Road. Strite encouraged audience members to attend and share their concerns about state mental health funding.

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