A panel formed last year to study the area’s ability to take care of drug abusers and the mentally ill will present its findings next month.

Carlisle Area Health and Wellness Foundation impaneled the behavioral health task force after a foundation survey in 2002 turned up a need for more services.

Task Force Chairman Perry Heath says the report will suggest specific programs that can be implemented quickly as well as “systemic changes” that could take years to put in place.

“The system is so complex,” he says. “We could literally spend years studying the behavioral health system. We had to bite off what we thought we could chew.”

The report will recommend making available training for family practice doctors who often are the first to see symptoms of mental illness, Heath says.

More psychiatric services

It also addresses the need for more psychiatric services in the community. The foundation awarded a $300,000 grant to Adams-Hanover Counseling Services to address that need.

The foundation’s board of directors recently approved the draft report, Heath says.

The report is also supportive of another task force studying the criminalization of the mentally ill. A task force led by Skip Ebert, Cumberland County district attorney, and Taylor Andrews, chief of Cumberland County’s public defender’s office, was formed following the November 2000 police shooting of Ryan Schorr in Wormleysburg.

Heath says the health and wellness foundation will be a “catalyst” or “facilitator” in developing a response to the report’s recommendations, “not the driver.”

One unique feature of this study is that eight or nine providers and advocacy groups have agreed to “look at the recommendations and assume ownership ... that’s different from what we’ve done in the past,” Heath adds.

Foundation Executive Director Bets Clever says the 2002 health status survey demonstrated a real need for the foundation to invest in local needs.

Depression important

Nearly 12 percent of respondents reported a need for mental health services. Depression was the third most commonly reported ailment.

“However, we knew that it was a huge issue and needed more study,” she says. “It was important to help us make wise investments and build partnerships in the community.”

She says the task force considered three broad areas:

# prevention and wellness,

# clinical services, and

# supportive services.

The 25-member behavioral health task force brought to the table area mental health professionals, Cumberland County human services officials, nonprofit service providers, patients, family members of patients and people from the religious community.

“This was one of the most unusual task forces I’ve ever sat on,” Clever says.

Dynamics “unusual”

She adds that she saw “people setting aside their personal beliefs to work toward a common consensus.” The group reached consensus but not always unanimity,” she says.

While clinical treatment needs generated a lot of lively discussion, Clever says the group also developed a new appreciation for supportive services - including case managers, housing and other patient needs following treatment.