President\u2019s plan includes a special focus on school-age youth<\/p>\n<\/h3>\n
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FRIDAY, March 4, 2022 (HealthDay News) — President Joe Biden has announced a new plan to expand mental health and drug abuse treatment that would devote millions to suicide prevention, mental health services for youth, and community clinics providing 24\/7 crisis care.<\/p>\n
Health insurers would also have to cover three mental health visits a year at no added cost to patients under the plan, which was introduced during Biden’s State of the Union speech<\/a> earlier this week.<\/p>\n Biden’s plan<\/a> includes a special focus on school-age youth. The upcoming budget will call for $1 billion to help schools hire counselors, psychologists, and other health workers. The budget will also propose $5 million for research on the effects of social media on children.<\/p>\n In addition to that, the federal government will launch a new suicide prevention hotline number — 988. Biden’s plan calls for nearly $700 million to bolster local crisis centers that can handle follow-up.<\/p>\n The plan also calls for making permanent an experimental program that has expanded access to 24\/7 mental health and substance abuse services. Called Certified Community Behavioral Health Clinics<\/a>, they are modeled on federally funded community health centers that have become a foundation for basic medical care in low-income communities. The behavioral health centers rely on peer counselors who have survived their own trauma to pull others out of crisis. The approach has bipartisan support, the Associated Press<\/em> reported.<\/p>\n Last but not least, the plan aims to increase the number of mental health professionals in this country by devoting $700 million to programs that provide training, scholarships, and educational loan repayment. Biden also wants to establish professional standards for peer counselors.<\/p>\n