Apr 22, 2022 2 min read

Greene County commissioners joined other Pennsylvania counties in asking lawmakers in Harrisburg to provide additional funding for mental health services.

Betsy McClure, vice chair of the board of commissioners, said prior to the vote at Thursday’s meeting that the resolution came down from the County Commissioners Association of Pennsylvania (CCAP).

The resolution asks that the 2022-2023 state budget “support the crumbling mental health system.”

“One of our top priorities this year is to ask our legislators to fund a gap that is there. This, I believe, will help our communities not only with mental health, but with our jails and in our schools,” McClure said, adding that they are specifically addressing more than $80 million cut from the state budget in 2012.

“We’re asking them to give some funding back,” McClure said.

Also Thursday, the commissioners approved an agreement with the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs medical centers in Pittsburgh and Clarksburg to provide telehealth services to Greene County veterans.

This is offered through a VA program called Accessing Telehealth through Local Area Stations (ATLAS) at no cost to the county.

“That station will be in our veterans office,” McClure said. “They will have video conferencing connection. We thank Windstream for donating a laptop there to be able to make this a streamlined process.”

Kathy Cipcic, director of Greene County Veterans Affairs, was present at the meeting and noted that Greene is the second county in Pennsylvania to adopt the program.

“This is going to assist our veterans big-time. Instead of traveling to Pittsburgh or Clarksburg, they can come in, have their appointments set up and talk to their physicians or whoever they need to,” Cipcic said.

The veterans affairs office is in the county office building at 93 E. High St.