Fourteen mental health organizations have formed a coalition to press federal and state officials to tackle the ongoing and growing mental health crisis that is accompanying the COVID-19 pandemic.
The coalition is offering a road map, A Unified Vision for Transforming Mental Health and Substance Abuse Care, which spells out “immediate and long-term changes that will lead to a mental health care system capable of saving our nation,” they said in a statement.
The group includes CEOs from the American Psychiatric Association, the American Psychological Association, the Massachusetts Association for Mental Health, Meadows Mental Health Policy Institute, Mental Health America, the National Association for Behavioral Healthcare, the National Alliance on Mental Illness, the National Council for Behavioral Health, One Mind, Peg’s Foundation, the Steinberg Institute, The Kennedy Forum, the Treatment Advocacy Center, and the Well Being Trust.
They have been meeting in weekly sessions since the beginning of the pandemic. The groups have come together in the spirit of previous efforts to address major health crises, including the 1970s war on cancer and the campaign to curtail the HIV/AIDS epidemic in the 1980s, they report.
The coalition reported that since the pandemic began the prevalence of depression symptoms has jumped threefold, overdose deaths have increased in 40 states, and 25% of young adults have had suicidal ideation.
“It requires immediate action by the new administration, as well as state and local governments in all 50 states, and an acknowledged, consistent commitment to fix what’s broken in our system of care,” Daniel H. Gillison Jr, CEO of the National Alliance on Mental Illness, said in a statement.
SAMHSA chief ‘grateful’
Elinore McCance-Katz, MD, PhD, who is the assistant secretary for mental health and substance use and leads the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, U.S. Department of Health & Human Services, applauded the coalition.
“I am very grateful that these organizations are stepping up and putting out a report like this,” Dr. McCance-Katz told this news organization. “I hope that they will continue this kind of advocacy and leadership on these issues going forward,” she said, adding that the need for mental health care and substance use disorders will be much greater going forward because of the pandemic.
Seven policy areas
The group’s 17-page strategic plan emphasizes interventions and methods that have already been tried and tested, focusing on seven policy areas:
- Early identification and prevention, especially for families and young people, by, for instance, bringing telehealth into schools and community centers.
- Rapid deployment of emergency crisis response and prevention, including speeding up the implementation of the new 988 number for the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline.
- Leveling inequities in access to care by addressing social and political constructs and historical systemic injustices such as racism.
- Integrating physical and mental health care and substance use services to ensure “whole-person” well-being.
- Achieving parity in payment by health plans for mental health and substance-use coverage.
- Assuring evidence-based standards of treatments and care.
- Increasing the number and diversity of the mental health care workforce, peer support, and community-based programs.