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Commissioners opt in on ‘Stepping Up’ initiative

Lycoming County will participate in the national initiative Stepping Up, which helps provide counties with the tools to lessen the number of mentally ill sentenced to prison, the Lycoming County commissioners decided Thursday.

An estimated 2 million people with mental illnesses are jailed nationwide annually, under the care of the counties rather than receiving proper treatment, said Commissioner Rick Mirabito.

“Adults with mental illnesses tend to stay longer in jails and, upon release, are at a higher risk of recidivism (committing another crime and returning to jail),” Mirabito said. “County jails spend two to three times more on adults with mental illnesses … Without proper treatment and services, people with mental illnesses continue to cycle through the criminal justice system, often resulting in tragic outcomes for these individuals and their families.”

The county’s criminal justice system, mental health services and other organizations have collaborated to initiate programs to help stem this issue already, such as with crisis intervention training. A Crisis Intervention Team coordinator was hired last year with grant funds to provide training to local law enforcement and emergency responders to help them de-escalate scenarios involving people with mental illnesses.

The Lycoming and Clinton Mental Health and Intellectual Disabilities Department also has two mental health professionals who provide mental health first aid training to community members as well as a type of suicide prevention training called QPR, or Question Persuade Refer, said administrator Keith Wagner.

Wagner said about 43 million adults in the country experience mental illness in any given year and about 10 million of those cases involve serious mental illness, such as schizophrenia.

He said people with mental illnesses are about 2.5 times more likely to be the victims of violent crimes.

“Lycoming County is not immune to these issues,” Wagner said.

He said people with mental illnesses will be better able to integrate back into society through hospitalization programs combined with community-based treatment and support.

“However, for this integration to succeed, a wide array of therapeutic and supportive services must be available in the local community, and this requires collaboration among various systems and stakeholders,” he said.

The department also is working to place a full-time, Masters-level, licensed social worker in the prison to help incarcerated people with mental illnesses in-house.

“Having someone right there to address those needs is just a phenomenal opportunity for Lycoming County,” said President Judge Nancy Butts.

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