The COVID-19 pandemic and the ongoing opioid addiction epidemic are public health crises that have cast light on a third — inadequate access to mental health care.

COVID-19 increased isolation and exacerbated a litany of mental health problems, accelerating the trend of “deaths of despair” due to suicide and drug overdoses.

The opioid epidemic has contributed mightily to that trend while creating the need for much more access to addiction treatment.

”It has become clear that mental health is just as important as physical health,” Gov. Josh Shapiro recently said. That always has been the case, but the long series of societal challenges over the past several years finally has moved that issue to a much higher priority for local, state and federal governments.

Shapiro proposes to attack the multilevel problem multiple ways.

His proposed budget would provide $100 million to school districts to improve the mental health services available to students, including $80 million in School-Based Mental Health Support Block Grants, $10 million for paid mental health internships and $10 million to train school mental health staff.

The governor also has proposed a means to ensure adequate funding for Pennsylvania’s part in the new national 988 National Crisis and Suicide Hotline system. Pennsylvanians now pay $1.65 per month, per phone line to fund 911 emergency call services. Shapiro proposes increasing that by 38 cents, 23%, to $2.03 per month, and dedicating 5 cents of that to the 988 operation and the rest going to emergency services.

The proposed budget also includes an additional $20 million a year for community mental health services for each of the next three years.

Some lawmakers also have proposed greater state-level support for mental health services.

Mental health care access is an issue that should transcend political differences in the Legislature because mental illness itself transcends those divisions. It is nonpartisan, and adversely affects Pennsylvanians in every urban, suburban and rural setting, every school district and every economic class.

That should define the scope of the state government’s response.

— The Citizens’ Voice, Wilkes-Barre via TNS