Last night, President Biden announced an ambitious strategy to address our national mental health crisis. At the Health Resources and Services Administration, we stand with the President in his call for unity in our national response and know that for the millions of Americans living with a mental health condition or caring for a loved one with a mental health condition, the time for action is now.
The trauma and loss of COVID-19 has heightened long-standing needs and inequities in our mental health system, and the President’s strategy charts a path forward to address these gaps to help all Americans thrive.
At HRSA, our work to implement the President’s strategy means taking action to dramatically expand the supply, diversity, and cultural competence of the mental health and substance use disorder workforce through our health professions training, scholarship and loan repayment programs; increasing the number of community health workers and peers providing behavioral health services; launching new programs to support the mental health and well-being of our heroic health care workers to reduce burnout; expanding access to substance use disorder treatment in rural communities, and bolstering the work of HRSA-funded community health centers, which provide health care to nearly 29 million Americans, to address the mental health needs of children and families in underserved communities across the country. We will continue to pull all available levers to help meet this critical moment for the nation’s mental health.
Read Administrator Johnson’s statement and more about the President’s plan.