Legislation Targets Growing Need for Child Mental Health Care

The ADAA, along with almost three dozen other national organizations, has endorsed bipartisan legislation that would authorize scholarships, loan repayment programs, training grants, and specialty training program support to address the growing need for child mental health care and the national shortage of children's mental health professionals.

The legislation is known as the Child Healthcare Crisis Relief Act and is sponsored by Sens. Jeff Bingaman (D-NM) and Susan Collins (R-ME) and Reps. Patrick J. Kennedy (D-RI) and Ileana Ros-Lehtinen (R-FL).

The sponsors, citing the U.S. Bureau of Health Professions, said "the demand for the services of child and adolescent psychiatrists is projected to increase by 100% by 2020, while the number of these professionals is expected to increase by only 30%, resulting in a shortage of over 4,000 child and adolescent psychiatrists by that year." They go on to say that "untreated mental illnesses are devastating to children and adolescents. Children with untreated mental disorders are at a higher risk for school failure and dropping out, violence, drug abuse, suicide, and criminal activity. We can only improve on our mental health system if we have the workforce in place, and the Child Healthcare Crisis Relief Act will help get new professionals in the pipeline."

The legislation would create incentives to help recruit and retain child mental health professionals providing direct clinical care and improve, expand, or help create programs to train child mental health professionals. To accomplish this, the legislation would provide loan repayment and scholarships for child mental health and school-based service professionals, grants to graduate schools for internships and field placements in child mental health clinical settings, and grants to graduate schools to help develop and expand child and adolescent mental health programs.

"This legislation will help remove one of the main barriers to treatment for children and adolescents with emotional and behavioral disorders," said ADAA President & CEO Jerilyn Ross, MA, LICSW. "We encourage ADAA members, donors, and supporters to contact their Congressmen and -women and urge them to co-sponsor this important legislation."

The ADAA serves on the Healthcare Policy Sub-Committee of the Mental Health Liaison Group (MHLG), an advocacy coalition on mental health issues whose members exchange political intelligence, form cooperative advocacy efforts, coordinate strategies, and discuss public policy issues related to mental health. The sub-committee monitors federal developments in mental health issues such as health care reform, Medicare, Medicaid, managed care, parity, and medical records privacy. Sub-committee members prepare letters to policymakers, testimony, and position statements on federal policy issues under consideration by Congress and federal agencies, working to develop positions that best reflect consensus within the mental health community.