Our Health Policy Matters

At least thirty-six states increased funding for mental health services during 2013, according to a recent report by the National Alliance on Mental Illness .  And last week, Vice President Biden announced that the federal government was adding $100 million in new funding for mental health services. So have we turned the corner on our nation’s mental health funding crisis, as many of the accompanying news headlines seemed to imply?  Or are these initiatives more a token gesture aimed at mollifying the mental health advocacy community in the aftermath of the Sandy Hook massacre, as others have suggested ?  I think that – with a couple of notable exceptions in Connecticut and Texas – the initiatives tend more toward tokenism than real change. Consider the national initiative.  On the face of it, $100 million sounds like a lot of money.  But it still represents only around 3 percent of the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (S...

At least thirty-six states increased funding for mental health services during 2013, according to a recent report by the National Alliance on Mental Illness .  And last week, Vice President Biden announced that the federal government was adding $100 million in new funding for mental health services. So have we turned the corner on our nation’s mental health funding crisis, as many of the accompanying news headlines seemed to imply?  Or are these initiatives more a token gesture aimed at mollifying the mental health advocacy community in the aftermath of the Sandy Hook massacre, as others have suggested ?  I think that – with a couple of notable exceptions in Connecticut and Texas – the initiatives tend more toward tokenism than real change. Consider the national initiative.  On the face of it, $100 million sounds like a lot of money.  But it still represents only around 3 percent of the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (S...