The Child Heath Care Crisis Relief Act

According to the Center for Mental Health Services, “20 percent of the Nation’s children and adolescents have a diagnosable mental disorder, and about 2/3 of these children and adolescents do not receive mental health care.” The major reason for this discrepancy is a severe lack of mental health providers who specialize in meeting the needs of our country’s youth.

In March of 2003, during the 108th Congress, Congressman Patrick Kennedy (D-RI) and Congresswoman Ileana Ros-Lehtinen (R-FL) introduced the “Child Heath Care Crisis Relief Act” in an effort to help alleviate the financial burden of current graduate students who are studying to become child and adolescent mental health specialists and to attract new students to the field. In June of that same year, Senators Jeff Bingaman (D-NM) and Susan Collins (R-ME) introduced its sister bill on the Senate floor. The Public Policy Office of the American Psychological Association (APA), which was involved in drafting the original legislation, teamed up with a coalition of associations led by the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry and was instrumental in garnering bi-partisan support for the bill. Unfortunately, the bill did not pass in the 108th. However, in March of this year at the beginning of the 109th Congress, the Child Heath Care Crisis Relief Act was reintroduced in both chambers by Congresspersons Kennedy and Ros-Lehtinen as H.R. 1106, and by Senators Bingaman and Collins as S. 537.

The current version of the bill would support (1) loan repayment, (2) scholarships, (3) clinical training grants, (4) education grants for paraprofessionals1, and (5) program development grants for those who are in training to become child or adolescent psychologist specialists. Mental health professionals covered under the bill would include child and adolescent psychiatrists, child psychologists, school psychologists, school social workers, school counselors, psychiatric nurses, social workers, marriage and family therapists and professional counselors. Priority would be given to those who are working with high-priority populations2, who are familiar with evidence-based methods in child and adolescent mental heath services, who demonstrate financial need, and who are working in the publicly funded sector.

A total of $45,000,000 would be authorized for each of fiscal years 2006 through 2010, and would be spread across the five aforementioned areas that the legislation would support. The student’s income and debt load would be taken into consideration when determining the amount of payments to be made for each grantee. However, no one student could receive more than $35,000, and this amount shall not exceed the total amount of the tuition expenses, reasonable educational expenses, and reasonable living expenses. The scholarship may be used only to pay for tuition expenses of the school year, other reasonable educational expenses, and reasonable living expenses.

In addition to the direct support the bill would provide to schools, individuals, and organizations, it also would increase the number of child and adolescent psychiatrists permitted under the Medicare Graduate Education Program and extend the Board eligibility period for residents and fellows from four to six years.

Click here to view the House version, H.R. 1106
Click here to view the Senate version, S. 537

1. Paraprofessionals are persons who are not mental health service professionals, but who work during the initial contact with children and families who are seeking mental health services.

2. “High-priority populations” are:
(A) Populations in which there are a significantly greater incidence than the national average of:

(i) Children who have serious emotional disturbances; or
(ii) Children who are racial or ethnic minorities; or

(B) Populations consisting of individuals living in a high-poverty urban or rural area.