Last week, Laura Evans, the AVP of Public Policy & Government Affairs, and Katie Keys, the Public Policy Coordinator at Vibrant Emotional Health (Vibrant), attended an informational policy event hosted by Mental Health America (MHA). As part of the conference theme, “Disrupt. Reform. Transform.” MHA organized several panels to discuss the varying factors affecting an individual’s mental health outcomes and how policy can foster cross-sector solutions that improve social drivers of mental health. The MHA Policy Institute focused on education, housing, food, and economic security, outlining how policymakers in these sectors can formulate, adapt, and institute policy that can improve mental health and overall well-being.
The opening panel, Integrating Care in Schools, featured several experts, including the Director of MHA Fauquier County, the Kaiser Permanente Program Lead for Student Behavioral Health, an MHA Public Policy Manager, and a Chicago-based education non-profit. One significant theme raised by all the panelists was the role COVID-19 played in exacerbating existing mental health challenges among youth and school-based mental health resources’ role in resolving related issues, such as absenteeism, which has doubled since COVID-19. While funding remains the primary challenge in expanding school-based mental health services, especially as COVID-19-based programming ends, several innovative programs have been raised. Some solutions include investments in youth peer support, local investment in workforce pipelines, beginning in high school, ensuring all school workers are trained in mental health first aid, and improving coordination between schools and healthcare providers.
The following two panels, Health-related Social Need in Medicaid and Housing & Food Security, featured representatives from the Centers of Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS), the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), and the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA). The government representatives during both panels emphasized the need to de-silo and coordinate policy implementation while fostering collaboration among varying federal agency programs. For example, the HUD and CMS representatives highlighted the Housing and Services Partnership Accelerator, a coordinated program between HHS and HUD that provides housing assistance for Medicaid-eligible disabled and older individuals at risk of homelessness. The government representatives also emphasized the need to adopt new approaches, such as HUD’s stance that housing can be a form of mental health treatment and the USDA’s new program, SUN Bucks, which provides grocery benefits for school-aged children in the summer. The adoption of innovative solutions in government is key to addressing the social drivers of mental health, as those who are at risk and do not receive mental health resources are often those who rely on government programs such as the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program and Medicaid.
The final panel, Economic Security, delved into guaranteed income’s role in improving mental health and how innovative tax policy can help address wealth disparities. The Economic Security panel featured a tax expert and a non-profit that runs guaranteed income programs. Both panelists highlighted the toll economic insecurity can have on individuals’ mental health, especially as people have to trade off one basic necessity for the other. Guaranteed income was raised as a program that could not only alleviate the challenges of financial insecurity but also emphasize how it could increase civic participation and foster trust in the government. Moreover, progressive tax policies, such as the Child Tax Credit, were lifted as an alternative form of cash assistance, programs that have faced increased scrutiny. For example, the Child Tax Credit instituted during COVID-19 lifted half of children out of poverty, and both presidential candidates support versions of the policy. The panelists highlighted that progressive economic policies can help not only alleviate the mental health challenges that stem from economic instability but can also advance racial equity by reducing wealth disparities.
The Policy Institute illustrated how all sectors and programming, from economic policy to housing vouchers, can be instrumental in improving mental health. As people from all walks of life face ongoing mental health challenges, entities that are not directly involved in the healthcare sector can institute approaches and programs to foster well-being, which can accompany mental health support and even alleviate further mental health challenges.
