READING, Pa. – The Berks County Board of Commissioners voted Thursday to authorize the administrator of Berks County Mental Health to execute a notification to the Department of Human Services to opt out of the assisted outpatient treatment for 2026.
Administrator Pamela Seaman said the assisted outpatient treatment is a civil commitment used for individuals with mental illness.
“The requirements are a little less stringent than typically apply, however, I don’t believe any counties have been able to successfully implement the treatment,” Seaman explained. “The reason that we’re deciding to opt out, and have opted out in previous years, is that it can be burdensome. It requires that individuals come in front of a judge, so it would mean increased activity for our judges as well as timelines in terms of an assessment team that needs to be pulled together to make a determination that a person needs a certain treatment plan.”
Seaman said all of those things come with a lack of funding.
“As you know, this year in particular, we did just have the budget approved, but we still don’t know our allocations, and we’re anticipating that everything will be flat funded,” she added.
But Seaman further explained that the county does use other mechanisms to continue to try to work with people and motivate them a little differently than the assisted outpatient treatment.
“Our recommendation this year is that we opt out and we continue to monitor and see if any other counties are able to do (the treatment) in a way that is helpful to the individuals that we support and also not burdensome in terms of financial and other resources,” Seaman said.