Oct 15, 2014 4 min read

The state Department of Public Welfare has chosen Washington County as one of three that will be a recipient of $5 million federal grant that seeks to help youth and young adults who have been diagnosed with, or are at risk for, serious mental health conditions.

The grant of federal tax dollars, which could last up to five years, is being made through the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration program called “The President’s Now Is The Time” plan.

Each county will receive about $230,000 each year of the grant, according to DPW.

The program seeks to improve youth and young adults’ access to treatment and support services in hopes that they will be able to live productive lives.

“Individuals who are between 16 and 25 years old are at high risk of developing a mental illness or substance use disorder, and are at high risk for suicide. Unfortunately, these youth are among the least likely to seek help and, as a result, they may ‘fall through the cracks’ and not receive the help they need to assume safe and productive adult roles and responsibilities,” according to the website of the federal program.

The agency goes on to note that youth and young adults with serious mental health conditions or those who have mental health conditions and who also abuse drugs face an even more difficult transition to adulthood than their peers, and some may be homeless or in jail.

The state Department of Public Welfare will work with Washington, Berks and Bucks counties to create ways to deliver education, employment, housing and peer services.

Beverly Mackereth, DPW secretary, said the grant will also be used to teach people the early signs of serious mental health conditions such as depression, major mood disorders, attention deficit disorder and oppositional defiant disorder.

The counties will be working with schools, service providers, the University of Pittsburgh and the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia. The universities will share their research to identify individuals who are in very early stages of psychosis.

Jan Taper, director of Washington County Behavioral Health and Developmental Services, found out a few weeks ago that Washington County was going to be named a pilot county.

“We were approached by DPW earlier in the spring,” Taper said Wednesday. “Pennsylvania was in competition with all the other states.” The federal agency awarded only 16 grants.

The mental health program at the Washington County Behavioral Health and Developmental Services agency serves approximately 1,700 persons aged 16 through 25.

Mary Jo Patrick-Hatfield, mental health program director for Washington County, wrote in an email, “We serve close to 7,000 individuals annually, so the approximately 1,700 youth that we serve between the ages of 16 and 25 equals just a bit under 25 percent of those we serve. According to the Washington County 2012 census, there were about 26,000 individuals in that same age group in the county, but only about 6 percent of them actually receive behavioral health services.”

According to Ellen DiDomenico, director of the Bureau of Policy, Planning and Program Development in the Department of Public Welfare’s Office of Mental Health and Substance Abuse Services, her office reached out to a number of counties that had expressed interest in improving their delivery of services to youth and young adults.

“We considered services that were already in place, interest in providing additional services to this age population and willingness to implement the requirements of the federal grant, including evaluation,” she wrote in an email. Over five years, the grant will allow the office to serve 660 people.