County, Borough Moving Forward with Next Steps for Mental Health Crisis Services Recommendations

The State College/Centre County Task Force on Mental Health Crisis Services completed more than a year of work in November when it delivered its final report. Now the borough and county are taking the next steps to oversee implementation of its recommendations.

A progress review committee will be charged with monitoring progress and providing feedback as agencies and staff address the report’s 19 recommendations for changes in the county’s mental health crisis services. State College Borough Council approved the committee’s creation on Monday night, and county commissioners gave their endorsement on Tuesday.

Formed in the fall of 2019 following the fatal police shooting of Osaze Osagie and subsequent community conversations, the 30-member task force conducted a comprehensive review of services in the county. The final report identified strengths and weaknesses of the current system and made recommendations for improvements to mobile and delegate crisis services, involuntary commitment warrant procedures, the role of police in responding to mental health calls, emergency department procedures and post-emergency department services.

“The progress review committee will serve as a resource to Centre County and the borough staff as we work on implementing the recommendations of the Task Force on Mental Health Crisis Services,” Centre County Administrator Margaret Gray said. “The PRC will meet with Centre County and borough staff to receive and review updates on the progress being made on the 19 recommendations. Through this review process, the PRC may ask and respond to questions about the work being done, offer clarifications or elaborate further on the recommendations, and provide pertinent suggestions in furthering the recommendations.”

Membership of the review committee will be open to members of the task force who can commit to quarterly meetings for the period of July 1, 2021 through June 30, 2022.

Regular reports will be made to borough council and county commissioners, State College Borough Manager Tom Fountaine said. Gray added that members of the public will have an opportunity to provide input.

While the committee will be monitoring the progress, the work of implementing the recommendations is far-ranging.

“A number of different entities, individuals, organizations will be involved in developing the implementation of the report,” Fountaine said. “Parts of the report, it will fall to the borough to provide leadership on the implementation plan. It will probably involve other partners as we proceed with this. Some of these are under the county’s domain and some would require outside organizations to be involved.”

Fountaine and Gray will oversee the work of borough and county staff and coordinate reports for the progress review committee.

Board of Commissioners Chair Michael Pipe said the work of the review committee will be “less time-intensive” than it was with the task force.

“The work of the task force is over in terms of they’ve come up with recommendations. They’ve come up with a specific set of items they would like the borough and county government to consider,” Pipe said. “This really is a next step, even packaged in there as one of the recommendations. What we’re going to be seeing out of that is essentially a monitoring and making sure we are working on what we need to be working on as we go forward”

The 19 overall recommendations are below. Each is explored further in the full final report.

1. Create a countywide co-responder model, involving a combination of law enforcement and mental health
professionals OR a fully civilian mental health response unit for crisis engagement.

2. Form a Crisis Services Coordinating Committee (CSCC), with membership sufficiently inclusive that individuals and family members are represented in meaningful numbers to have a voice and meeting often enough to build trust, knowledge, and organizational effectiveness.

3. Enhance communication with families in need during crisis, including connecting with groups that specifically serve marginalized populations to integrate research-based practices and processes that improve communication to and among marginalized groups and increasing accessibility to mental health crisis resources for families/supporters of those in crisis.

4. Enhance current communication/collaboration among these four internal entities in the mental health crisis response system by establishing a formal, quarterly meeting of Centre County Mental Health/Intellectual
Disabilities/Early Intervention/Drug & Alcohol, Crisis Intervention (Center for Community Resources), Delegate services (Service Access Management, Inc.), law enforcement, and Mount Nittany Medical Center Emergency Department (ED case manager and Behavioral Health inpatient case manager).

5. Create standardized protocols, Best Practices in Mental Health Crisis Intervention, across the larger system, including 911 dispatch, Crisis Intervention (CCR), Delegate services (SAM, Inc.), mental health transport providers, Centre County MH/ID/EI/D&A, law enforcement, MNMC Emergency Department, and the Meadows.

6. Develop and implement a countywide transportation plan for those in mental health crisis to assist with
transportation to receive crisis services.

7. Identify and develop additional community resources available for those not held for mental health treatment,
including those who refuse inpatient services.

8. Create and implement a plan for common/shared trainings, where appropriate, across agencies/departments involved in the crisis response system.

9. Build a data collection, repository, and sharing system to be used for evaluating the effectiveness of the current system, while observing required and ethical privacy practices.

10. Identify limitations or barriers and advocate for updating of the PA Mental Health Procedures Act.

11. Advocate for increased state/local funding for additional adult and adolescent inpatient hospital beds, including co-occurring substance abuse and serious mental illness.

12. Develop and implement practices assuring all relevant individual information is consistently identified, gathered, organized, and communicated to involved law enforcement and emergency department personnel.

13. Review and assure that all assessment tools, interview protocols, and practices reflect cultural responsiveness and are evidence-based.

14. Enhance required implicit bias training and periodic follow up for all crisis intervention and delegate services personnel.

15. Enhance the newly implemented jail diversion program and services, including supporting the creation of a mental health court in Centre County.

16. Enhance law enforcement training in mental health.

17. Support the full adoption of the Mental Health Crisis Best Practices Guide for Law Enforcement developed through the District Attorney’s Office in July 2020.

18. Work with 911/Emergency Communications to develop policies and a procedure, including specific criteria to aid 911 dispatchers to divert appropriate calls from police to mental health services for first response.

19. Enhance Mount Nittany Medical Center Emergency Department and other hospital services care, management and processes for mental health crisis patient response and overall care by creating the Behavioral Health Interdisciplinary Committee. The internal committee will consist minimally of the ED physician, psychiatrist, ED case manager, Emergency Department manager, and Behavioral Health manager. An internal or external consulting liaison member will provide resources on inclusivity and cultural responsiveness.