October 10th, 2008

State advocates met with legislators at a senior center in Scranton to describe how the state fails to meet the mental health needs of senior citizens and children, reports the Times-Tribune today:

“Tossed from system to system … youth are medicated and undereducated,” said Wendy Luckenbill of the Mental Health Association in Pennsylvania. “And they too frequently leave for the adult world with no clear handle on the tasks they were supposed to master to be able to navigate the world on their own.”

Meanwhile, seniors with mental health issues are commonly stuck into nursing homes when less restrictive, in-home care would better serve them, said Teresa Osborne, executive director of Lackawanna County’s Area Agency on Aging.

Seniors lack access to the kind of care that would benefit them most, such as mobile therapists, yet younger people can more easily go to counseling centers and seek out help, she added.
The committee members in attendance were state representatives Jake Wheatley, D-19 of Allegheny County, Lackawanna County lawmakers Ken Smith, D-112, and Frank Shimkus, D-113, Lehigh County’s Douglas Reichley, R-134, along with Phyllis Mundy, D-120, and Eddie Day Pashinski, D-121, of Luzerne County.

Find out where similar meetings will be held by the House Health & Human Services Subcommittee on HealthPoint.