President Obama Calls For $235 Million For Mental Health Care

President Obama has set forth a $235 million plan directed at providing greater awareness of and resources for those struggling with mental health issues and substance abuse disorders.

As included in the proposal first outlined in January, the budget calls for the establishment of an initiative called Project AWARE (Advancing Wellness and Resilience in Education), which would receive $15 million to be used in training teachers and other adults who work with youth to detect and respond to mental illness. This would include encouraging students and their family to seek treatment as deemed necessary and would reach an estimated 750,000 young people.

Project AWARE would also receive $40 million to help school districts interact better with law enforcement, mental health agencies and other necessary local organizations to ensure that the needed treatment is accessed.

"The initiative," states the report, "builds on strategies that, for over a decade, have proven to decrease violence in schools and increase the number of students receiving mental health services."

And while much of the focus has to do with school-age youth, the plan includes $25 million for "innovative state-based strategies" designed to increase access to resources for those between the age of 16 to 25 who are at high risk for mental illness, substance abuse and suicide.

In order to further prevent violence among youth, the plan includes a proposed $25 million to establish and ensure that students exposed to community violence, which includes an estimated 22 percent of those between the ages of 14 and 17, receive counseling for trauma or anxiety, as well as conflict resolution programs and "other school-based violence prevention strategies."

The bill further calls for a $50 million allotment to train more than 5,000 new mental health professionals who would in turn work with adolescents in both schools and greater communities.

In all, Secretary of Health and Human Services Kathleen Sebelius wrote on a blog on her agency's website on Tuesday that 60 percent of people with mental health conditions and nearly 90 percent of people with substance use disorders are not receiving appropriate care.

Part of this, both she and the Obama Administration stress, is due to a lack of insurance. Come 2014, however, the Affordable Care Act is estimated to bring in an estimated 6 to 10 million people who currently are not receiving the mental health coverage they need. 

However, another and no less significant part, both stress, is the changing the current stigma surrounding issues of mental health.

"America has come a long way in talking about mental health, yet we are still a country that too often confines mental health and addiction to the far edges of our discourse," Sebelius said.

For this reason, the proposal's final call is for both her and Secretary of Education Arne Duncan to "launch a national dialogue about mental illness" focused on decreasing stereotypes and increasing understanding.

"We can encourage people to seek help if they are struggling, and we can reach out and assist a struggling friend or loved one in finding help when needed," she said. "We can let them know that prevention works, treatment is effective, and people do recover."