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Children’s Mental Health Act of 2003 ISSUE: Research clearly demonstrates that children’s healthy social and emotional development is an essential underpinning to school readiness, academic success, and overall well-being. Furthermore, early prevention and intervention efforts have been shown to improve school readiness, health status and academic achievement, and to reduce the need for more costly mental health treatment, grade retention, special education services and welfare dependency. Unfortunately, a significant number of Illinois children experience serious mental health problems and many of them do not receive the services they need. The current system of children’s mental health services in Illinois is fragmented, limited in scope and under-resourced. Illinois does not have a short or long term plan for addressing children’s mental health needs, and is not taking advantage of funding opportunities that could be directed at an improved children’s mental health system.
· A recent Illinois survey found that 42% of child care programs with children under age three had to ask a family to withdraw a child because staff were unable to manage the child’s behavior. · One in 10 children in Illinois suffers from a mental illness severe enough to cause some level of impairment; yet, in any given year only about 20% of these children receive mental health services. · Nearly 70% of those in the juvenile justice system have mental health problems. · Nearly one-quarter of Illinois adolescents and one-third of Chicago adolescents reported signs of depression for two or more weeks in a row that kept them from doing usual activities.
ACTION: The State should make fundamental and timely reforms to create a system that meets the range of children’s mental health needs from birth to age 18.[kjv1] By building on existing programs and doing business differently, the State can create a comprehensive, coordinated children’s mental health system composed of prevention, early intervention, and treatment programs. An effective system can have an enormous impact on children’s ability to learn; help them resist violence, substance abuse, teen pregnancy and delinquent behaviors; and substantially reduce the costs of more expensive interventions. Existing, scarce resources can be maximized and new and alternative sources of funding secured to address the social and emotional development needs of children. The Children’s Mental Health Act of 2003 is based on recommendations from the Children’s Mental Health Task Force, a multi-disciplinary group of nearly 100 public and private agencies.
CHILDREN’S MENTAL HEALTH ACT OF 2003 (SB 1951)
(Chief House Sponsors: Hamos-Bellock-Coulson-Lang-Collins
Enactment of the Children’s Mental Health Act will result in:
· A Children’s Mental Health Plan for Illinois will be developed that provides substantive and strategic direction for building an effective children’s mental health system that addresses the prevention, early intervention and treatment needs of children 0-18. · Funds granted and contracted by the Office of Mental Health may be used for services to all children ages 0-18 years (current funding can only be expended on children ages 3-18 years). · A plan will be developed and implemented by the Illinois State Board of Education that incorporates social/emotional development standards into the Illinois Learning Standards. Policies developed by school districts that address the role of social/emotional development in district education programs.. · Medicaid eligible children will receive a comprehensive assessment prior to admission into a psychiatric hospital to determine whether more appropriate and less costly community-based services are available, and urrently untapped federal Medicaid funding for Individual Care Grants for individuals under 21 hospitalized for psychiatric reasons will be claimed. Advocates will seek to have cost savings directed at children’s mental health.
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