NORWICH – The common theme over the course of the last year has been “change” for Chenango County’s Community Mental Hygiene Services (CMHS), said Director of Community Services Ruth Roberts, who presented highlights contained within the department’s 2012 annual report to members of the Chenango County Board of Supervisors at this month’s regular board meeting.

“The landscape of health care is changing and as the implementation of large (national) policies, such as the Affordable Care Act unfolds at the state, regional and county level, we find several new entities emerging,” Roberts told board members. She also pointed to recent policy changes in the area of health care, and new state and federal mandates that are often unfunded and therefore, more stressful on local agencies.

“Many of the changes we saw this past year were primarily driven by what we will be required to do to get ready for changes coming down the pipe,” Roberts added. “These are major changes. We have to look at getting ready and paying attention to what we’re doing and how we measure recovery ... It will be challenging, particularly when we look at those individuals with high needs because they are the folks costly to healthcare systems.”

Notwithstanding challenges wrought by the Affordable Healthcare Act, Chenango County CMHS also reports increased dependency of individuals on mental health care resources in the past year – part of a nationwide trend, said Roberts. According to the report, mental health services saw a drastic 47 percent increase of individuals under the age of 21 in its outpatient clinics, and the complexity and severity of their mental health needs has increased.

“In 2012, we served 946 individuals under the age of 21 years, compared to 642 served in 2011, and delivered a total of 7,276, compared to 4,706 services in 2011,” the report says.

But such numbers aren’t necessarily a bad thing, added Roberts. “I really believe that if we can identify these children early on and provide some type of support and treatment to the child and family, then we can prevent solvable small problems from becoming expensive, lifelong conditions,” she said.