Illinois governor plan targets kids' mental health crisis
The governor of Illinois says the state will fight a mental health crisis among children
SPRINGFIELD, Ill. (AP) — A mental health crisis among children in Illinois will be fought by streamlining and easing access to necessary treatment and coordination between six separate state agencies, Gov. J.B. Pritzker announced Friday.
In the works for nearly a year, the study examined the capacity and condition of Illinois’ response to behavioral health in young people. It sketches avenues to help families first to understand mental illness, then makes it easier for them to get required care without navigating what Pritzker called the “serpentine” paths of disparate state agencies.
“Government doesn’t work very well between silos of one department and another,” Pritzker said at a school in the Chicago suburb of Maywood. “People feel like they have territory that they need to protect. And the fact is that our territory is all of the children of the state of Illinois.”
The mental health of children nationwide rapidly unraveled during the COVID-19 pandemic. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in 2021 found 44% of American children had depressive episodes lasting at least two weeks and nearly half had thought about suicide, according to the report.
