State College-Centre County mental health task force in transition after death of chairwoman
The three-month old State College-Centre County mental health task force will need to “reset” after the recent death of its chairwoman, Centre County Commissioner Mike Pipe said Tuesday.
During Tuesday’s board of commissioners meeting, Pipe announced that task force chairwoman Billie Willits recently died. The task force aims to examine the entire “continuum of care” for mental health crisis services in Centre County and was formed, in part, as a response to the fatal police shooting of 29-year-old State College resident Osaze Osagie.
“We need to be reflective on that because the work that she invested — countless hours, days, weeks — as chair ... to getting involved in this and learning the players, learning the issues, learning a way forward that was pragmatic,” Pipe said. “With her loss, there’s been a need to reset and find another chair, which is going to be important to lead that group.”
Willits, a 30-year resident of State College, came to the community from a small city in Iowa. She worked at various higher education institutions in Iowa, Massachusetts, Ohio and at Penn State in human resources, leadership development, strategic planning, affirmative action and as a faculty member. She also served as board chair of Skills of Central Pennsylvania and the Skills Foundation, president of AAUW State College and was a current member of the Human Resource Committee of Centre Volunteers in Medicine.
She died Nov. 20 after a battle with cancer, according to her obituary.
The members serving on the task force have not been released publicly, but Willits told the CDT in October that they represent a “broad section” of the community.
Leslie Liang, of Ferguson Township, said she serves as a “witness” on the task force. During Tuesday’s meeting, she said the borough and county have been “accommodating” by establishing the task force, but said it has been “insufficient in providing ample voices” to represent the experts who also sit on the board.
Concerned about the closing of Universal Community Behavioral Health’s Bellefonte outpatient clinic and crisis intervention services, Liang said the county needs to be proactive in how it manages its mental health services.
“We want to support you. We have re-elected you, and we need resolution to this issue,” Liang said. “Now if that comes in the form of additional committee members, additional task force meetings, if it comes with additional providers having to come and rally with you in the legislature ... then you need to come out and ask for that help.”
Administrator Margaret Gray said the task force is trying to find a new chairperson while working to complete the first phase of their work — mapping and identifying the county’s mental health resources.
“We are hoping to have the mapping piece finished by mid-January, so that a more in depth conversation can begin at that point about what’s working, what’s not working, what can be improved, what are the recommendations that will come back to the board of commissioners and the State College Borough Council members,” Gray said. “That’s where we are currently.”
This story was originally published December 10, 2019 at 1:46 PM.
