Just 4 Youth

On the Hill

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Hello, and welcome to the On the Hill section!

Hello Everyone,

Here is a bill that I thought you might take some interest in.  The Mental Health on Campus Improvement Act (S.682) was introduced in the Senate in March 2009 and was referred to the Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions.  

What this act would do is provide grants for colleges and universities to improve their mental and behavioral health services and outreach.  There are six main guidelines that help determine what colleges and university programs will receive these grants:

1) They will have to demonstrate the greatest need for such services and supports.

2) They will have to show promising approaches to starting or expanding campus services.

3) They will need to show that their focus will be on populations that are underserved in behavioral health services, at risk of failing out of school, being incarcerated, and/or other negative outcomes.

4) They will need to work together with community based mental health resources.

5) Colleges and universities will have to identify how they will address psychiatric emergencies.

6) Lastly, they will need to demonstrate how well their program can be recreated.

In addition, any college or university that is awarded a grant will be provided with technical assistance and support.  Work groups will be created to start a public education campaign that is focused on mental and behavioral health on college campuses.

Even though this bill was introduced last year it has been sitting in the Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions ever since.  As some of you may already know the legislative process can take a long time and that sometimes bills that are sent to committe often never make it out.  For more information about this process you can visit http://www.ffcmh.org/what-we-do/policy/federal-legislative-process/ 

If you would like to receive more information on this bill you can visit http://www.govtrack.us/congress/bill.xpd?bill=s111-682  or as always you can email me, just click on the letter icon at the top of this page!