Letter to the editor: More mental health facilities needed in Westmoreland

Westmoreland County needs additional mental health resources, especially for those in immediate crises. Pathways, a former Excela program, helped people with mental issues avoid hospitalization. Reinstituting this program would deliver services directly to people in need and avoid costly hospitalizations. A return to Pathways would give people appropriate levels of care when they need it the most.

Mental health treatments often make no distinction between someone in crisis with schizophrenia or long-term depression, for example, and a person who suffers mental issues as a secondary condition because of drug or alcohol addiction. There are psychiatric programs that rely on patient therapy with or without drugs that are very effective on a case-by-case basis. Using drugs or hospitalizations for every case regardless of the underlying cause can leave patients in a “drugged” or listless state that actually worsens their condition.

The need to treat mental patients as individuals instead of widgets in a factory is of the utmost importance. Pathways or a 24/7 crisis resolution center seeded with the American Rescue Plan money could help to rectify this deficiency. Our commissioners need to do the right thing.

The Rev. Dr. Josh Shaffer

Greensburg