Mental health needs, including emergency department visits and suicide rates among youths, have skyrocketed in the US, but access to treatment remains inadequate. Before the COVID-19 pandemic, approximately half of the children with mental health needs in the US were not receiving treatment from a mental health professional. The pandemic exacerbated this crisis by further decreasing access to treatment and increasing psychosocial risk factors such as family unemployment, social isolation, and increased family stress. Consequently, a National Emergency in Children’s Mental Health was declared in a joint communication by the American Academy of Pediatrics, the American Academy of Child & Adolescent Psychiatry and the Children’s Hospital Association. Families cannot find mental health care for their loved ones; psychiatrists experience an insatiable need for their services; emergency departments are overrun by youths in crisis and waiting for an inpatient bed for days, if not weeks—many would argue that the mental health system needs to be fixed. But the key questions are: How do we fix it? And where do we start?

Today, the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) – through the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA), and the Office of Minority Health (OMH) – announced nearly $35 million in funding opportunities to strengthen and expand community mental health services and suicide prevention programs for America’s children and young adults. The American Rescue Plan funded $9.2 million. This announcement is part of a new Administration-wide initiative to tackle the nation’s mental health crisis.