红领巾瓜报 Insights: Your source for healthcare news, ideas and analysis.
红领巾瓜报 Insights 鈥� including our new podcast 鈥� puts the vast depth of 红领巾瓜报鈥檚 expertise at your fingertips, helping you stay informed about the latest healthcare trends and topics. Below, you can easily search based on your topic of interest to find useful information from our podcast, blogs, webinars, case studies, reports and more.
The Bipartisan Safer Communities Act offers new funding for states to develop a Certified Community Behavioral Health Clinic (CCBHC) Demonstration program. A new (NOFO) for states has just been released with a deadline of Monday December 19, 2022. During this webinar 鈥� a follow up to our October 6 webinar 鈥� experts from 红领巾瓜报 and the National Council for Mental Wellbeing provided an overview of the CCBHC Demonstration program NOFO, offered strategies for using CCBHC as a strategic transformational opportunity for systems improvement, reviewed the NOFO requirements and key changes from previous opportunities, and outline strategies for developing a successful response.
Learning Objectives
Review requirements of the new CCBHC Demonstration Planning NOFO for states and how it varies from previous efforts.
Understand the importance of aligning the CCBHC model within a larger state behavioral health and integrated care strategy.
Learn key considerations for states in responding to the opportunity and steps to improve the quality of a response.
,听Senior Advisor, Public Policy and Special Initiatives,听National Council for Mental Wellbeing
Did You Miss Part 1 of our CCBHC Planning Grant Webinar Series?
In case you missed it, experts from 红领巾瓜报 and the National Council for Mental Wellbeing were joined by state leaders from New York and Michigan (two current CCBHC Demonstration states) for a pre-NOFO release discussion on October 6, 2022. During this prior webinar, we shared lessons learned and strategies states have used to successfully plan for the CCBHC Demonstration Program and leverage the CCBHC initiative as a transformation opportunity that can help behavioral health care systems achieve their broader health quality and access goals. The recording, slide deck, and an associated Q&A document from that previous session can be found here.
Deeply rooted structures, systems, and beliefs have perpetuated racial inequities within substance use and mental health treatment and recovery settings. Racism and associated traumas add to these injustices and may influence how people of color experience and seek help for behavioral health needs. During this webinar, hear from community-based practitioners, who are leveraging evidence-based practices centered in equity, to provide support to our most vulnerable through harm reduction, overdose prevention and linkage to community treatment services.
Learning Objectives
Learn about the importance of centering your approaches in equity.
Obtain concrete examples of specific equity practices for harm reduction and overdose prevention.
Develop an understanding of national efforts that can support prevention in communities, driven by communities.
Speakers
, MD, Attending Physician, Behavioral Health, Department of Family and Community Medicine and Center for Health Equity and Innovation, Cook County Health
Rashad Saafir, PhD, President, CEO, Bobby E Wright Comprehensive Behavioral Health Center
Substance and opioid use disorders (S/OUD) affect people from all walks of life, including those active in faith communities. Yet many faith leaders do not know how to effectively support members of their congregations and their families who are struggling with these diseases. Faith groups and faith leaders from all denominations can be critical allies in addressing the stigma of S/OUD and building safe, compassionate spaces for individuals to get spiritual support along with the physical, mental, and emotional help they need to recover from S/OUD.
Presenters led participants through the myths and facts about S/OUD most relevant to faith communities and how to create faith-based prevention initiatives that can work in collaboration with other state S/OUD prevention and harm reduction strategies.
Learning Objectives
Find out how Faith-based Organizations (FBOs) can play an important role in helping individuals and families affected by S/OUD.
Learn how to encourage collaboration between faith communities and systems of care.
Understand key myths and facts related to S/OUD to share with FBOs.
Learn how to help FBO start prevention and harm reduction strategies in their communities.
Find out how to leverage FBOs to expand education about SUD and reduce stigma.
Speakers , West Tennessee Faith-Based Community Coordinator with the Tennessee Department of Mental Health & Substance Abuse Services Ana Bueno, Senior Associate, 红领巾瓜报 Stephanie Denning, Principal, 红领巾瓜报
Industry stakeholders are non-traditional partners who can be effective in supporting and expanding opioid overdose prevention efforts. During this webinar, attendees heard about one state鈥檚 experience using data to identify and target stakeholders in high-risk industries, including construction and food services. We shared a framework for industry-specific prevention efforts鈥攊ncluding use of data; identification of key partners; engagement strategies, and education; stigma reduction, and harm reduction activities鈥攖hat other locales can adapt and integrate into their overall opioid prevention and response strategies. In addition, we identified possible funding opportunities to support this type of effort.
Learning Objectives
Learn about effective ways to build non-traditional, industry-specific partnerships to support communities to reduce overdose deaths.
Understand how data can help target and engage stakeholders in outreach, education, stigma reduction, and harm reduction.
Obtain concrete examples of industry-specific engagement and education activities that have been impactful in the restaurant and construction industries.
Speakers
, Director, Office of Health Crisis Response, Delaware Department of Health and Social Services Division of Public Health Mayur Chandriani, Associate, 红领巾瓜报 Kristan McIntosh, Principal, 红领巾瓜报
Communities across the country are seeing elevated numbers of adolescents in the Emergency Department due to suicide attempts, self-harm, anxiety, depression, substance use disorder (SUD), and overdose. While this youth mental health crisis predates COVID, it has been greatly exacerbated by the pandemic. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), in 2019, 13% of adolescents reported having a major depressive episode, a 60% increase from 2007, and suicide rates rose nearly 60% for youth ages 10 to 24 by 2018[1]. Then it got worse. Last December, the U.S. surgeon general issued a as emergency room visits due to suicide attempts rose 51% for adolescent girls in early 2021, compared to the same period in 2019. For boys, the increase was 4%[2].
The surgeon general recommends a 鈥渨hole-of-society effort,鈥� including a focus on mental health education and prevention, early identification, and access to high-quality mental healthcare.[3] School-based intervention is ideal because only 20% of students in need of more intensive services typically receive needed care when referred to external providers.[4]
The Bipartisan Safer Communities Act has committed $1.7 billion for mental health support in schools and communities via an array of methods including grant programs. The following programs are currently available for a wide array of eligible entities, including states, cities/counties, Local Education Agencies (LEAs), Indian tribes or tribal organizations, health facilities, and nonprofit entities:
.听 This grant program provides up to $1.8 million per year for up to 4 years to develop a sustainable infrastructure for school-based mental health programs and services. Grant recipients are expected to build collaborative partnerships with the State Education Agency (SEA), LEA), Tribal Education Agency (TEA), the State Mental Health Agency (SMHA), community-based providers of behavioral health care services, school personnel, community organizations, families, and school-aged youth. Grant recipients will leverage their partnerships to implement mental health-related promotion, awareness, prevention, intervention, and resilience activities to ensure that students have access to and are connected to appropriate and effective behavioral health services.听 Applications are due October 13th.
(ReCAST). This program provides up to $1,000,000 a year for up to 4 years to promote resilience, trauma-informed approaches, and equity in communities that have recently faced civil unrest, community violence, and/or collective trauma within the past 24 months; and to assist high-risk youth and families through the implementation of evidence-based violence prevention, and community youth engagement programs. SAMHSA expects ReCAST to be guided by a community-based coalition of residents, non-profit organizations, and other entities (e.g., health and human service providers, schools, institutions of higher education, faith-based organizations, businesses, state and local government, law enforcement, and employment, housing, and transportation services agencies). Applications are due October 17th.听
In addition to these two grants, there will be an expansion of the Certified Community Behavioral Health Center (CCBHC) Demonstration for States that is expected to be released later this month. The Excellence in Mental Health Act[5] established a federal definition and criteria for CCBHCs. These centers are a provider type that delivers a comprehensive range of mental health and SUD services to vulnerable individuals. They meet people where they are, which can include school-based services, and act as a critical partner in ensuring people have access to quality, affordable, and accessible mental health care.
School-based Mental Health Services
School-based mental health services, delivered within a Multi-Tiered System of Supports (MTSS) framework, can be supported by the aforementioned funding opportunities. The MTSS framework is currently used in public schools to target services and supports to students. As shown below, MTSS addresses universal prevention and progressively targeted support for students and families. It also aligns well with partnerships with community providers to establish an authentic community response that addresses the continuum of mental health needs.
Multi-Tiered System of Supports (MTSS) framework
The key to a successfully implemented MTSS framework is a strong partnership between the school staff, parents/guardians, children, and community partners. This partnership works well when anchored to an evidence-based socio-emotional curriculum that is reinforced across all Tiers and familiar to all parties.
Suicide and Self Harm Prevention
Dialectical Behavioral Therapy (DBT) was recently identified by the New York Times as because it is one of the only interventions found to reduce self-harm and suicidal ideation, its effects are maintained at one-year follow-up[6], and it successfully engages young people[7].
Curriculum developers Drs. Lizz Dexter-Mazza and James Mazza worked with Marsha Linehan, the DBT treatment developer, to adapt DBT Skills into a universal school-based social emotional learning curriculum, called . This approach is designed to help schools intervene and support well-being and resiliency before kids are suicidal or self-harming. It trains existing school personnel to integrate skill-building into the school program, universally or as a stand-alone option for youth in 6-12th grade (an elementary version is in development). As such, it is a viable approach, despite the current shortage of mental health care professionals in school-based settings.
In addition, DBT provides a shared language and strategies across all three MTSS tiers so that everyone (students, school staff, teachers, providers, and parents/guardians) can benefit. Because DBT is also commonly provided in inpatient, outpatient, and residential behavioral health programs, the value of extending this approach into school settings is further magnified for youth who transition from the highest levels of care.
A DBT STEPS-A program taught at the universal level provides the broadest application within school-based settings, supports uptake that leads to peer-to-peer coaching and support, along with shifting the school environment and culture to promote mental wellbeing and reinforce the skills via a shared language and common strategies. In Tier 2, students are supported to practice skills and decision-making strategies in smaller group or individual psychotherapy sessions as needed. The third tier is more intensive support for students experiencing ongoing emotional and behavioral difficulties for whom Tier 2鈥搇evel support is not sufficient. It is designed to supplement individual psychotherapy for those in need of a higher level of care. Parent/guardian skills-training seminars are recommended, so they can learn about the skills their child is acquiring and how best to support them while they are practicing. Engaging parents/guardians proactively helps to increase adaption of the skills across both home and school contexts.
A matched sample of adolescents who received the DBT STEPS-A curriculum demonstrated lower scores on the BASC-2 Emotion Symptom Index and on the BASC-2 Internalizing Problems, indicating fewer mental health difficulties, compared to peers who did not receive the curriculum (Cohen鈥檚 F squared equal to 0.65 and 0.83, respectively[8].
The DBT curriculum is accessible via a . All handouts for kids are available in English and Spanish and can be printed from a web-based link for free. An are available to support rapid school-based service delivery.
To learn more about current and upcoming funding for enhanced school and community-based mental health care or DBT-STEPS-A, contact our experts below.
You can also contact DBT in Schools, LLC for information about DBT-STEPS-A [email protected].
[1]National Vital Statistics reports – Centers for Disease Control and … (n.d.). Retrieved from https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/data/nvsr/nvsr69/nvsr-69-11-508.pdf
[2] Richtel, M. (2021, December 7). Surgeon general warns of Youth Mental Health Crisis. The New York Times. Retrieved from https://www.nytimes.com/2021/12/07/science/pandemic-adolescents-depression-anxiety.html
[3]Protecting youth mental health – hhs.gov. (n.d.). Retrieved from https://www.hhs.gov/sites/default/files/surgeon-general-youth-mental-health-advisory.pdf
[4]Sheryl H. Kataoka, M.D., M.S.H.S., Lily Zhang, M.S., and Kenneth B. Wells, M.D., M.P.H. (2002). Unmet Need for Mental Health Care Among U.S. Children: Variation by Ethnicity and Insurance Status. The American Journal of Psychiatry:
[5] Excellence in Mental Health Act. (2013, February 7). http://www.congress.gov/
[6]McCauley E, Berk MS, Asarnow JR, et al. Efficacy of Dialectical Behavior Therapy for Adolescents at High Risk for Suicide: A Randomized Clinical Trial. JAMA Psychiatry. 2018;75(8):777鈥�785. doi:10.1001/jamapsychiatry.2018.1109
[7]Rathus, Jill H. ( 2014). DBT skills manual for adolescents. New York :The Guilford Press,
[8] Elizabeth T. Dexter-Mazza, James J. Mazza, Alec L. Miller, Kelly Graling, Elizabeth Courtney-Seidler, and Dawn Cattuchi (2022). Application of DBT in a School-Based Setting. Pending publication
Community Response Teams are vital cross-sector, data driven, community-based collective action initiatives that address the local opioid crisis through harm reduction education, Naloxone distribution, and data. During this webinar, 红领巾瓜报 speakers addressed the rationale, framework, funding, and implementation of successful initiatives that serve as models for other states, including case studies from California and Delaware.
Learning Objectives
Create local community collaborations focused on opioid education, Naloxone distribution, and reducing stigma.
Understand the four critical concepts of the Community Response Team framework: prepare, use data, prevent, and co-design with community.
Understand how counties in California and Delaware implemented the framework.
With the help of newly available federal funding, states like Minnesota are poised to dramatically advance crisis systems and services to address the needs of individuals who experience behavioral health crises. During this webinar, speakers provided an overview of key behavioral health crisis initiatives nationwide, including a look at specific community efforts that can inform the development of improved systems and services in Minnesota.
Learning Objectives
Understand the differences between crisis systems and crisis services.
Find out how communities are advancing crisis systems and services by leveraging national opportunities.
Assess the implications of SAMHSA鈥檚 focus on block grant funding for crisis services.
Learn how the new national 988 call number and allocations for 988 infrastructure support can drive improved crisis response.
The Bipartisan Safer Communities Act offers states new funding for expansion of the Certified Community Behavioral Health Clinic (CCBHC) Demonstration. The next CCBHC Planning Grant RFP for states is anticipated to be released in the fall of 2022. In this webinar, the first of a two-part series, experts from 红领巾瓜报 and the National Council for Mental Wellbeing discussed:
The CCBHC Demonstration opportunity and what the evidence for the model demonstrates
How states have used the CCBHC model as a transformational opportunity that can help behavioral health care systems achieve broader health quality and access goals
Lessons New York and Michigan have learned from their CCBHC efforts, including key takeaways from the application and implementation processes
Speakers
Kristan McIntosh, Principal, 红领巾瓜报 Heidi Arthur, Principal, 红领巾瓜报
Dave Schneider, Managing Principal
Rebecca Farley-David, Senior Advisor, Public Policy and Special Initiatives, National Council for Mental Wellbeing
Check Out Part 2 of our CCBHC Planning Grant Webinar Series
In our follow-up webinar, 红领巾瓜报 and National Council for Mental Wellbeing reviewed the specific requirements of the Substance Abuse Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) Notice of Funding Availabilities (NOFA) and shared recommended activities for states to have a successful application. The recording and slide deck can be found here.
Behavioral health organizations are benefitting from unprecedented access to public and private grant funding. But there are significant risks to simply 鈥渃hasing funds,鈥� such as mission drift and increased staff burnout within an already overburdened workforce. During this webinar, speakers from 红领巾瓜报 and LAPA Fundraising outlined concrete steps behavioral health organizations can take to ensure they are pursuing the type of grants that support their overall mission.
Join us to:
Garner strategies and approaches for successfully winning grant dollars
Obtain an overview of current and upcoming funding opportunities that behavioral health agencies can use to build capacity and better serve their communities
Understand the tools and tactics organizations need to enhance their ability to attract both public and private grants
Develop a long-term strategy for diversifying agency funding for use in both growing existing behavioral health programs and seeding new and innovative initiatives
Speakers
Kristan McIntosh, Principal, 红领巾瓜报
, Managing Director of Grants, LAPA Fundraising
This week, our In Focus section highlights an 红领巾瓜报 Issue Brief, Bolstering the Youth Behavioral Health System: Innovative State Policies to Address Access & Parity, published in August 2022. The brief examines policies aiming to advance access and availability of behavioral health services (encompassing mental health and substance use disorders) for youth. Below we explore opportunities for states to adopt levers to ensure access to the full continuum of children鈥檚 behavioral health services. States should consider developing a multi-faceted strategy to address accessibility issues including:
A policy mechanism for insurance coverage and funding for infrastructure, support and services across behavioral health, child welfare and Medicaid
A robust delivery system for provision of services
Comprehensive benefit design
A mechanism to monitor network adequacy, access, and parity
The COVID-19 pandemic has exacerbated rates of depression, anxiety, and other behavioral health issues among youth 鈥� with suicide now the second leading cause of death among ages 10-12. Pre-pandemic, 1 in 5 children experienced a mental health condition every year and only 54 percent of non-institutionalized youth enrolled in Medicaid or CHIP received mental health treatment. Between March 2020 to October 2020, mental health鈥搑elated emergency department visits increased 24 percent among youth ages 5 to 11 and 31 percent among ages 12 to 17, compared with 2019 emergency department visits.
Youth covered by Medicaid and the State Children鈥檚 Health Insurance Program (CHIP), and the Early and Periodic Screening, Diagnostic and Treatment (EPSDT) of the Medicaid Act require state Medicaid agencies to provide enrollees under age 21 with access to periodic and preventive screenings, and services that are necessary to 鈥渃orrect or ameliorate鈥� medical conditions, including other additional health care services such as behavioral health conditions. It remains the responsibility of states to determine medical necessity on a case by-case basis. As of 2020, states are mandated to submit a CHIP state plan amendment to demonstrate compliance with the new behavioral health coverage provisions. However, behavioral health services are not a specifically defined category of benefits in federal Medicaid law and coverage of many services is at state discretion. The 2008 Mental Health Parity and Equity Act (MHPAEA) requires that Medicaid managed care and private health insurers who do reimburse for behavioral health services provide behavioral health benefits to cover mental health and substance use services that is no more restrictive than the coverage generally available for medical and surgical benefits. While MHPAEA was designed to reduce inequities in coverage between behavioral and physical health services, it does not reduce inequities in reimbursement as payers are not required to cover behavioral health services.
Ambitious efforts are underway to prioritize behavioral health services for youth. The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) recently called for states to prioritize and maximize efforts to strengthen youth mental health. The American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP), American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry (AACAP) and Children’s Hospital Association declared a national emergency in children’s mental health. In addition, passage of the Bipartisan Safer Communities legislation includes significant funding for mental health screening, expansion of community behavioral health center (CCBHC) model; improving access to mental health services for children, youth, and families through the Medicaid program and CHIP; increasing access to mental health services for youth and families in crisis via telehealth; and investments to expand provider training in mental health, supporting suicide prevention, crisis and trauma intervention, and recovery.
With suicide now the among children, adolescents, and young adults (aged 15-24 years old) in the United States, it is apparent that the COVID-19 pandemic has not only exacerbated rates of depression and anxiety, but also illuminated the fractures in our youth behavioral health system. In response, states are focusing on ways to advance policies that aim to expand coverage for youth mental health services.
Individuals suffering from mental health conditions or substance use disorders (SUDs) face many challenges accessing care and often do not seek treatment. Even before the COVID-19 pandemic, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) data found 1 in 5 children were diagnosed with a mental health disorder, yet only 20% of those children received appropriate care.
In the past two years, over 100 laws in at least have been enacted with a focus on supporting schools to act as a primary access point for youth behavioral health care. At least half of all states are applying the co-location approach, where both types of care are delivered at the same site, to better integrate physical and behavioral health care. According to the Kaiser Family Foundation , more than four-fifths of states launched initiatives related to screening for behavioral health needs, an effective strategy for Medicaid to connect those with behavioral health needs to the appropriate services.
Medicaid plays a pivotal role as , including both mental health and SUD services. Efforts to address these issues have been a focus in Medicaid at the federal level, including in the 2018 SUPPORT Act and more recently in the 2021 American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA), which provided enhanced Medicaid funding for certain behavioral health providers and mobile crisis services. The Center for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) under the Biden Administration has highlighted policy and investments as a federal Medicaid priority.
During National Mental Health Awareness Month, the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) called for states to strengthen youth mental health and detailed HHS鈥� plans to support state-wide coordination across federal funding streams to expand youth mental health services. This blog highlights California’s approach and spotlights other states鈥� efforts to bolster the children’s behavioral health system.
State Strategies to Strengthen the Youth Behavioral Health System
There has been significant work underway in California for years to address youth behavioral health services, but up until recently it did not include substantial investments to redesign the mental health system for youth, and families. California exemplifies ways to leverage policy levers and make significant state investments to cultivate and strengthen the youth behavioral health system.
In 2021, California enacted groundbreaking legislation by making significant investments to reimagine its youth behavioral health system. The is a $4.4B investment intended to enhance, expand, and redesign the systems that support behavioral health for youth, children and families. This initiative, administered by the California Health and Human Services Agency and its departments, aims to evolve California鈥檚 behavioral health system in which all children (25 years of age and younger) regardless of payer, are served for new and existing behavioral health needs.
This seeks to enhance and redesign the current behavioral health system by integrating behavioral health into physical health, education, and other areas that support children and families. With a stronger focus on prevention and early intervention, the Initiative will distribute school-linked partnership, capacity, and infrastructure grants to support implementation of the initiative for behavioral health services in schools and school-linked settings.
The Initiative will also provide to qualifying Medi-Cal (Medicaid) managed care plans to establish interventions that expand access to preventive, early intervention, and behavioral health services for children in publicly funded childcare and preschool, as well as pre-K-12 children in public schools. Also included are efforts to submit a State Plan Amendment to incorporate the under Medi-Cal, whereby screening for behavioral health problems, interpersonal safety, tobacco and substance misuse and social determinants of health are provided for the child and caregiver or parent during medical visits. A key piece of the Initiative stipulates that every component outlined in the Children and Youth Behavioral Health Initiative Act may only be implemented if the Department of Health Care Services confirms that federal financial participation under the Medi-Cal program will not be jeopardized. Indeed, the intricate design and implementation of the Initiative would not be possible without partnerships from other State agencies, education stakeholders, subject matter experts, and community partners to deliveressential services from prevention to treatment and recovery.
California’s commitment to address youth behavioral health services at a statewide level illustrates the various efforts emerging across the country. California is one state that is advancing multi-faceted strategies through legislation and Medicaid, but other states have used various Medicaid authorities including , State Plan Amendments (SPAs), and 1915(c) Waivers to remove accessibility roadblocks and enhance youth behavioral health services. States have taken a variety of approaches in their commitments to bolster the system of care around the country that include:
amended its state plan amendment to expand the EPSDT benefit to enable a greater focus on prevention, early intervention, and expansion of behavioral health services.听
amended its state plan to make Mobile Response and Stabilization Services (MRSS) for youth up to age 21 reimbursable under Medicaid鈥檚 EPSDT benefit.
Ohio RISE (Resilience through Integrated Systems and Excellence) for youth with complex behavioral health needs was enacted through a Medicaid 1915c waiver. Through this program, a single managed care organization provides new, targeted behavioral health services and intensive care coordination
Washington State passed the (Chap. 263, Laws of 2022) to ensure coverage for all emergency behavioral health services (adult and children) to protect consumers from charges for out-of-network health care services by addressing coverage of emergency BH services.
Moving Ahead
States can combine the power of their policy levers along with the cascade of forthcoming federal dollars to strengthen the youth mental health system of care. The includes significant funding for mental health screening, among other critical services. The Bipartisan legislation seeks to foster the tremendous opportunity for states and schools to increase behavioral health capacity for students and mental health professionals, evidenced by the School Based Mental Health Services (SBMHS) Grant Program, the School Based Mental Health Service Professionals Demonstration Grant, and several other investments for supportive services in schools.
Ensuring equitable access to a plethora of high-quality behavioral health services for youth requires the individual and collective commitment of states. The children鈥檚 mental health crisis has reached unprecedented levels and the opportunity for states to lead by example has arrived. Fortunately, states have significant tools to address the youth mental health crisis through the design and deployment of innovative policies and mission-aligned collaborations. Federal funds and state policy levers will help advance a robust and accessible children鈥檚 behavioral health system. As our communities work to rebuild in a post-pandemic world, states have the unique opportunity to provide today鈥檚 youth with compassion, essential behavioral health resources, and integrated systems to meet them where they are.
With 1 in 5 children experiencing a mental health condition every year and only 54 percent of non-institutionalized youth enrolled in Medicaid or CHIP receiving mental health treatment, the 红领巾瓜报 team of Caitlin Thomas-Henkel, Uma Ahluwalia, Devon Schechinger and Debbi Witham have authored the first in a series of briefs focused on enhancing the youth behavioral health system. This brief, Bolstering the Youth Behavioral Health System: Innovative State Policies to Address Access & Parity, explores state policy levers to advance access and availability of behavioral health services (encompassing mental health and substance use disorders) for youth.
