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The Biden-Harris Administration is committed to addressing the nation’s behavioral health crises and strengthening mental health of all Americans. As part of President Joe Biden’s whole-of-government strategy to transform mental health services for all Americans—a key part of the President’s Unity Agenda—Secretary Becerra kicked off the HHS National Tour to Strengthen Mental Health to address the mental health challenges that have been exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic, including substance use, youth mental health, and suicide. Since kicking off the tour, Secretary Becerra and HHS leaders have been traveling across the country to hear directly from Americans about the mental health challenges they’re facing and engage with local leaders to strengthen the mental health and crisis care system in our communities. The following is a snapshot of various efforts made by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services over the past year:
At the center of our national mental health crisis is a severe shortage of behavioral health-trained providers. Over one-third of Americans live in designated Mental Health Professional Shortage Areas, areas that have fewer mental health providers than the minimum their population would need. The historical challenges in recruiting and retaining these and other essential health workers have been exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic. Recent studies indicate elevated levels of burnout among health care workers, along with depression and other mental health challenges.
What We’ve Accomplished
American Rescue Plan
Expanding and Strengthening the Behavioral Health Workforce
Suicide remains the second leading cause of death among youth aged 10 to 14 and adults aged 24 to 35. While suicide was responsible for nearly 46,000 deaths in 2020, many more people attempt or have serious thoughts of suicide – critical risk factors for future suicide. (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC)).
Crisis services are an integral component of addressing behavioral health challenges in communities across the nation. A fully developed crisis response system is responsive any time and any place, providing a person in a mental health or substance use crisis with someone to talk to, someone to respond, and a safe place to go for evaluation, stabilization and follow up. Like a physical health crisis, a mental health or substance use crisis can be devastating for individuals, families, caregivers, and communities.
What We’ve Accomplished
American Rescue Plan
Expanding and Strengthening Crisis Care Services and Suicide Prevention
Health plans and health insurance issuers that offer mental health and substance use disorder (SUD) benefits must provide those benefits comparable to their coverage for general medical and surgical care. However, parity is only achieved if it is implemented well, consumers and providers understand how it works, and there is appropriate oversight. HHS is committed to working with our federal partners to achieve parity and hold health plans and issuers accountable for delivering care that does not have arbitrary or discriminatory limits on coverage for mental health and substance use conditions.
The Mental Health Parity and Addiction Equity Act of 2008 (MHPAEA) generally requires that the financial requirements and treatment limitations – such as copayments and prior authorization requirements – imposed by a group health plan or health insurance issuer on mental health or SUD benefits cannot be more restrictive than the predominant financial requirements and treatment limitations that apply to medical and surgical benefits.
Expanding and Strengthening Parity
Behavioral health and primary care integration strategies have the potential to improve overall health and quality of care. The medical community now widely considers integrating behavioral health care with primary care an effective strategy for improving outcomes for millions of Americans with behavioral health conditions. HHS supports programs and practices that train providers and teams to integrate care, promote the use of telehealth, and remove payment and delivery barriers.
What We’ve Accomplished
American Rescue Plan
Promoting Primary Care Integration
The crisis of opioid misuse, addiction, and overdose in the United States is a rapidly evolving and urgent public health emergency. Overdose deaths were rising prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, but in 2020 there was a 30% increase in overdose deaths, with nearly 92,000 overdose deaths. Provisional data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) indicate that overdose have continued to increase, with more than 105,000 overdose deaths predicted in the 12 months ending November 2021.
The burden of overdose expands to other consequences of substance use disorders (SUD), including nonfatal overdose, and the human cost of this crisis also takes a heavy toll on families, caregivers, and communities. The HHS Overdose Prevention Strategy prioritizes four key target areas—primary prevention, harm reduction, evidence-based treatment, and recovery support. The HHS Overdose Prevention Strategy prioritizes four key target areas—primary prevention, harm reduction, evidence-based treatment, and recovery support.
What We’ve Accomplished
American Rescue Plan
Recent Actions to Expand Overdose Prevention and Access to Treatment
Telehealth use increased dramatically during the COVID-19 pandemic. Recent research from ASPE suggests that access to telehealth was not equitable across different population subgroups. Behavioral health conditions can be significantly improved with telehealth for conditions such as post-traumatic stress disorder and depression, with improvements in somatic symptoms, functioning, and medication adherence. In addition, studies have examined audio-only telehealth for several mental health conditions and found the effectiveness to be comparable to in-person care.
What We’ve Accomplished
American Rescue Plan
Expanding Equitable Access to Virtual Behavioral Health Care
Recent national surveys of young people show alarming increases in the prevalence of anxiety, depression, and other behavioral health challenges that have been increasing consistently over the past decade. Last year the Surgeon General issued a new Advisory to highlight the urgent need to address the nation’s youth mental health crisis, outlining the pandemic’s unprecedented impacts on the mental health of America’s youth and families, as well as the mental health challenges that existed long before the COVID-19 pandemic.
In March 2022, a new HHS study showed significant increases in children diagnosed with mental health conditions from 2016 to 2020, including an increase of nearly 30 percent in the number of children diagnosed with anxiety or depression. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) data shows that in 2021, more than a third of high school students reported experiencing poor mental health during the COVID-19 pandemic.
What We’ve Accomplished
American Rescue Plan
Responding to the Youth Mental Health Crisis
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