Opportunities to Promote Children's Behavioral Health

The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (ACA), which was signed into law in 2010, has several provisions that could greatly improve the behavioral health of children and adolescents in the United States. It requires that many insurance plans cover mental health and substance use disorder services, rehabilitative services to help support people with behavioral health challenges, and preventive services like behavioral assessments for children and depression screening for adults. These and other provisions provide an opportunity to confront the many behavioral health challenges facing youth in America.


To explore how the ACA and other aspects of health care reform can support innovations to improve children's behavioral health and sustain those innovations over time, the Forum on Promoting Children's Cognitive, Affective, and Behavioral Health held a workshop on April 1-2, 2015. The workshop explicitly addressed the behavioral health needs of all children, including those with special health needs. It also took a two-generation approach, looking at the programs and services that support not only children but also parents and families. This report summarizes the presentations and discussions of this workshop.

Table of Contents


Front Matter
1 Overview and Highlights of the Workshop
2 Responding to the Challenge
3 Funding: Opportunities, Threats, and Potential for Innovation
4 Implementing Innovations at the State and Local Levels
5 Intermediary Groups for Two-Generation Approaches
6 Implementing Innovations in Primary Care
7 Implementing Innovations in Other Settings
8 The Research Landscape for Primary Care and Children's Behavioral Health
9 Looking Forward: Reflections for Public Policy
Appendix A: Workshop Statement of Task
Appendix B: Workshop Agenda
Appendix C: Biographies of Workshop Speakers