Child Welfare
Education
Behavioral
Health
Primary Care
INTEGRATING BEHAVIORAL HEALTH
Education
“Our School Counseling Program funds school districts to establish or expand
counseling programs in targeted elementary schools, and improve connections with
community mental health providers.”
(Above)
— Deb Delisle, Assistant Secretary
U.S. Department of Education
Primary Care
SUPPORT OF CHILDREN, YOUTH, AND FAMILIES
Systems that serve children and families are naturally connected. The first place
mental health challenges are identified is often in schools or in pediatricians’ offices.
Sometimes these challenges surface when a family comes in contact with the child
welfare system.
Without a coordinated system of care in which child-serving agencies work together,
children, youth, and families have a more difficult time getting the services and
supports they need. That’s why integrated care is one of SAMHSA’s top priorities
and why it was the focus of the 2015 Awareness Day national event: Strengthening
Communities by Integrating Care—an observance that drew more than 1,150 inperson and online viewers.
SAMHSA collaborates with several federal agencies in the national effort to integrate
behavioral health with primary care, child welfare, and education. For the Awareness
Day national event, these included the Department of Education, as well as the
Administration for Children and Families and the Health Resources and Services
Administration within the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS). As part
of the 2015 national event, leaders from these agencies discussed how they are
working to better integrate federal efforts to help children, youth, and families.
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NATIONAL CHILDREN’S MENTAL HEALTH AWARENESS DAY
“In the last year alone, our agency awarded more than $100 million to health centers
nationwide to hire mental health and substance abuse prevention professionals. With
these funds, health centers expect to establish or expand services to nearly 900,000
people nationwide.”
— Jim Macrae, Acting Administrator
Health Resources and Services Administration
Child Welfare
“The Children’s Bureau has funded 20 demonstration projects that are implementing
trauma screening, assessments, and ongoing progress monitoring, some with a goal
to scale up statewide. With their mental health service providers, they are creating a
service array to best meet families’ needs.”
— Mark Greenberg, Acting Assistant Secretary
Administration for Children and Families
“As we work to improve our health care system, we will continue to focus on seeing
our patients not as a collection of symptoms to be treated, but as a whole person
whose mental health is key to a healthy life.”
— Sylvia Mathews Burwell
HHS Secretary
2015 FINAL REPORT
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