A committee created by the 21st Century Cures Act to better coordinate federal efforts to address serious mental illness and emotional disturbance today released its recommendations to Congress and federal agencies. The report calls for developing an interdepartmental strategic plan to improve services and outcomes for people with serious mental illness and emotional disturbance; a national standard for crisis care; and a continuum of care that includes adequate psychiatric bed capacity and community-based alternatives to hospitalization. It also recommends using telehealth and other technologies to increase access to care; increasing the capacity of the behavioral health workforce; making housing more readily available; diverting people with serious mental illness and emotional disturbance from the justice system; and developing finance strategies to increase care availability and affordability, among other actions.

Related News Articles

Blog
Even before the COVID pandemic, the mental health and wellness of our young people was failing. The pandemic exacerbated the crisis and made it difficult for…
Headline
A new AHA video highlights how Corewell Health is transforming youth behavioral health care access in rural Michigan through school-based clinics and…
Headline
The Departments of Labor, Health and Human Services, and the Treasury May 15 announced that they will not enforce the 2024 mental health parity final rule, a…
Headline
Overdose deaths in the U.S. fell 26.9% last year to 80,391, according to estimates from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The agency reported…
Headline
Beth Heinz, senior vice president, Women’s and Children’s Services at Yale New Haven Health, and Cheri Johnson, chief nursing officer, Woman’s Hospital in…
Headline
Zaira Khalid, M.D., senior staff geriatric psychiatrist at Henry Ford Behavioral Health Hospital, discusses the unique physical, emotional and social needs of…