inseparable

🚨 Maryland moves to cut mental health and substance use services at a time when the state’s behavioral health system is already stretched thin.

Across the state:
🧠 1M+ residents have a diagnosed mental health condition
📊 1 in 5 youth struggle with mental health or substance use challenges
🚫 1.5M+ people live in communities without enough mental health professionals

Earlier this year, the General Assembly rejected a $20M cut to school mental health programs, recognizing how essential these services are. Yet demand for behavioral health services continues to grow, providers remain in short supply, and federal Medicaid cuts are putting even more pressure on a system that’s already stretched thin.

Reducing access to care now will only make it harder for Marylanders to get the help they need and research shows untreated behavioral health needs can drive healthcare costs up to 3x higher.

We urge Governor Wes Moore to restore these cuts and protect access to mental health care for children, families and communities across Maryland.

Strong communities depend on a strong behavioral health system. Now is the time to strengthen these services and supports--not scale them back.

Read more>> https://www.thebanner.com/community/public-health/addiction-mental-health-service-FYRCT473J5DODCNLTTNT7P7B2U/

In Pennsylvania, only 1 in 5 calls to a listed mental health provider results in an appointment. Those who do get one wait an average of 60 days.

If insurance companies can continuously deny, restrict, and delay care without consequence, then the system isn't broken. It's working exactly as designed.

But we don’t have to accept the status quo. Other states have passed reforms that are already reducing delays, increasing accountability, and making it easier for patients to get care. It’s time for Pennsylvania to do the same.

Our Chief Executive Officer, Bill Smith wrote about what's driving this gap, and what it will take to change it. Read the full piece here: https://insact.us/4fGNHWr

Wins for mental healthcare in Pennsylvania! 🎉

With its newly-enacted annual budget, the keyword for mental health in the Keystone State is accessibility. For everyone from students in schools to people experiencing a crisis, lawmakers are investing in mental health resources to help Pennsylvanians get the care they need, when they need it — including dedicated state 988 funding for the very first time.

🏫 $100 million schools can use to hire counselors and improve school safety.
🚨 $5 million for walk-in mental health centers so people experiencing a crisis aren’t forced to turn to crowded hospital emergency rooms.
📱 And $10 million for the 988 crisis hotline, so when anyone reaches out, they can be confident that there will be someone on the other end of that phone.

These investments are crucial steps toward ensuring that mental health care and crisis response are more than an afterthought. They reflect a commitment to treating children and every person in crisis with dignity, compassion, and care.

This is what can happen when we work together. Thank you, Pennsylvania. 🩵

Families have waited a long time for online platforms to be built with their kids' safety in mind. This week, that fight moved forward. The Senate Commerce Committee advanced the Kids Online Safety Act, bipartisan legislation that would hold companies legally responsible for designing products that protect children rather than harm them.

We already expect the toys, medicines, and cars in our kids' lives to be made safe. The online platforms they use every day should be no different. Now the full Senate needs to take the next step and pass KOSA, so Congress can finally provide real protections for families by the end of this year.

Thank you to Chairman Ted Cruz and Ranking Member Maria Cantwell for making this a priority, and to Senators Marsha Blackburn and Richard Blumenthal for their incredible leadership to advance the bill.

If you've ever tried to get a loved one help during a mental health crisis, you know coverage doesn't always show up the way you'd expect. Part of the reason traces back to how insurance rules were written.

Essential health benefits are supposed to guarantee mental health and substance use care are covered like a hospital stay or ER visit. But the rulebook defining what insurers must cover was locked in using employer plans from 2012 and 2014, written before mental health parity law was fully in effect.

This month, we told CMS exactly that. Alongside NAMI, Mental Health America, and six other national groups, we laid out how that gap still shows up in coverage today and what needs to change.

Read what we told them: https://insact.us/4g3Lqol

Kids are growing up online, and the platforms shaping their days still face almost no rules to keep them safe. That is closer to changing than it has been in a generation. The Kids Online Safety Act now has 77 senators behind it, and the House just passed its own version.

We are calling on the Senate Commerce Committee to advance KOSA before the August recess as a standalone bill, with no amendments that weaken it or override the state protections families are already counting on. Sen. Marsha Blackburn has been the fiercest champion for kids online, and we are urging her to keep this bill whole. Our children have waited long enough.

For four years, Sen. Marsha Blackburn has championed the Kids Online Safety Act, a bill that would require social media companies to put children's well-being ahead of their profits, and she has done it as a legislator, a mother, and a grandmother who listens to grieving families across the country.

Parents of every background want the same thing, which is for their children to grow up safe from the harms that too many families have already suffered. Passing KOSA would be a legacy that families everywhere could point to with pride for years to come.

The moment to finish the job is near, and Big Tech is pushing for a deal that would weaken the very protections at stake. We are grateful to Senator Blackburn for being a champion for children, and we are asking her to continue to stand firm so this legacy becomes real. Read the op-ed from two mothers who know how much this matters, and share it with your community.

Blackburn should stand firm on the Kids Online Safety Act | Opinion Grieving parents urge Sen. Marsha Blackburn to pass the Kids Online Safety Act without granting Big Tech immunity.