WILMINGTON, Del. – Yesterday, Rep. Blunt Rochester hosted a virtual congressional conversation with several Delaware pediatric and adolescent mental health and education leaders to discuss the impact of COVID-19 on children and how to improve children’s mental health services in Delaware. Conversation participants included representatives from Nemours Children’s Health, the Delaware Division of Prevention and Behavioral Services, Delaware Guidance Services for Children and Youth, Inc., NAMI Delaware, Delaware American Academy of Adolescent and Pediatric Psychiatry, the Delaware Department of Education, and the Colonial School District Superintendent. Blunt Rochester highlighted three of her bipartisan pieces of legislation, H.R. 1397, the Telehealth Improvement for Kids’ Essential Services (TIKES) Act, H.R. 4943, the Children’s Mental Health Infrastructure Act, and H.R. 4944, the Helping Kids Cope Act, that would address the ongoing children’s mental health crisis. Specifically, these bills address the need for expanded capacity in pediatric behavioral and mental health services, fund community-based activities, support training and workforce innovations, and expand telehealth access.
“Children continue to face unprecedented challenges from the pressures of the COVID-19 pandemic,” said Blunt Rochester. “More than 1 in 5 children in Delaware have mental, emotional, developmental, or behavioral disorders.The COVID-19 pandemic has only exacerbated the need for reliable mental health services and infrastructure in Delaware. That’s why I was honored to host today’s conversation with key leaders in Delaware’s children and adolescent mental health and education fields to hear their perspectives and recommendations on how we can better support mental health services for Delaware’s children. The three bipartisan bills I’m currently working on in Congress would help do just that – provide additional funding to bolster mental health services, support workforce training in pediatric health settings, and expand in telehealth access in Delaware to meet the needs of our state’s children.”
“Nemours Children’s Health thanks Congresswoman Blunt Rochester for her steadfast leadership in addressing our nation’s pediatric and adolescent mental health crisis. We are proud partners on three bipartisan bills which support the mental health workforce, enhance treatment capacity and improve access to telehealth,” said Mary M. Lee, MD, FAAP, EVP, Physician-in-Chief, Nemours Children’s Hospital Delaware, and Chief Science Officer, Nemours Children’s Health. “We look forward to continued partnership in serving Delaware’s children and families.”
Rep. Blunt Rochester highlighted three of her bipartisan pieces of legislation to combat the children’s mental health crisis including:
- H.R. 1397, the Telehealth Improvement for Kids’ Essential Services (TIKES) Act
- Provides states with guidance and strategies to increase telehealth access for Medicaid and Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP) populations
- Requires a GAO study to examine data and information on the impact of telehealth on the Medicaid population
- Requires a GAO study to review coordination among federal agency telehealth policies and examine opportunities for better collaboration as well as opportunities for telehealth expansion into early care and education settings
- H.R. 4943, the Children’s Mental Health Infrastructure Act
- Provides funding to children’s hospitals for additional pediatric care capacity for behavioral and mental health services
- Supports costs associated with reallocating existing resources, including converting general beds to accommodate behavioral health patients, creating new capacity for “day hospital” care, and supporting the associated costs of meeting safety standards to protect children and adolescents
- H.R. 4944, the Helping Kids Cope Act
- Provides funding to support pediatric behavioral health care integration and coordination
- Allows for flexibility to fund a range of community-based activities including community health workers or navigators to coordinate family access, pediatric practice integration, funding to support telehealth treatment, pediatric training for crisis response, mental and behavioral health urgent care, community-based initiatives such as school-based partnerships, and initiatives to decompress emergency departments
- Provides funding to support training and other workforce innovations at children’s hospitals, pediatric delivery settings, and other settings in multiple disciplines related to pediatric behavioral health
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