County presents crisis-system enhancement plan, cites reduced ED boarding and fewer suicides

Holly Leahy, administrator for Lebanon County MH/ID/Early Intervention, briefed the board on the county’s Crisis Intervention System Enhancement Plan, contracted through the Panto Group and funded with ARPA Community Mental Health Services Block Grant dollars. The multi-year assessment included interviews with more than 95 stakeholders, quantitative data analysis and benchmarking against SAMHSA national guidelines.

Leahy outlined seven recommendations: strengthen the MH/ID office and CRISES collaboration team with memorandums of understanding and standardized workflows; enhance law-enforcement partnerships; expand mobile crisis response and peer services; increase school collaboration through training and outreach; create a crisis-system data warehouse to track throughput, response times, frequent utilizers and outcomes; and pursue diversified, long-term funding while advocating for updated Pennsylvania crisis regulations and reimbursement mandates.

Leahy highlighted measurable improvements since the initiative began: mobile crisis interventions and walk-ins have increased, emergency-department boarding has declined (average behavioral-health ED length of stay dropped from 27.8 hours in 2022 to 12.8 hours in 2025) and the county reported a decrease in completed suicides from 30 in 2024 to 18 in 2025. Leahy said beds at the county’s extended-acute unit and Wernersville State Hospital were available and that the county had no wait lists for longer-term beds at the time of the report. She credited collaboration with regional partners and the Panto Group for the plan’s development and said the county would continue to refine data collection to track outcomes.