This week has been a busy one on Capitol Hill as it relates to congressional efforts on mental health. On Sunday, a bipartisan group of twenty Senators announced they had reached an agreement on a framework related to gun safety including investments in child and family mental health services. On Wednesday, the Senate Finance Committee […]
As Mental Health Awareness Month comes to an end, last week, leaders from six agencies across the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) issued a joint letter calling on states, tribes, and jurisdictions to support children’s mental health and well-being by coordinating the use of federal funds, including mental health care covered by […]
Among the Covid-19 pandemic’s most pernicious aftershocks is its impact on student mental health. Isolated at home, disconnected from friends, and suffering trauma from family members’ job losses or Covid-related deaths, students are experiencing high levels of anxiety and depression. About 44 percent of adolescents experienced persistent feelings of sadness or hopelessness during the pandemic compared to […]
Last week, HHS announced that they have awarded nearly $25 million to Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA)-funded health centers that deliver services at school-based sites in underserved communities. These awards build upon the $5 million that HRSA distributed to new and existing school-based service sites in September 2021. Similar to last year’s round of […]
By Erica Fener Sitkoff, Ph.D. Voices for Georgia’s Children The reality is, no one has escaped the effects of the profound mental health challenges we face – in the news, in our shared communities, in our homes. In fact, the world’s experience of the COVID-19 pandemic gave us a collective definition for unwellness like no […]
In a new article published last week in JAMA Pediatrics, researchers from the Health Resources and Services Administration find that anxiety and depression among children ages 3-17 have increased over the last five years. The researchers use data from the National Survey of Children’s Health to look at trends in children’s health, care utilization, and […]
