About the Campaign
The Surgeon General and SAMHSA report that as many as 1 in 5 kids has a mental health problem. And of those, only 1 in 5 gets the treatment he or she needs.
 The Campaign
The Campaign for Children’s Mental Health is a 3-year sustained effort to make mental health services more available and accessible to the children in Virginia who need them, regardless of where the children live or what “system” identifies their needs. Family members, treatment professionals, mental health service delivery organizations, child advocacy organizations, and policy experts are partnering together in a broad action coalition to:
- recruit and mobilize parents as partners, advocates, and campaign leaders;
- cultivate key legislators and members of the McDonnell administration to champion this cause;
- persuade state and local mental health officials to advocate for needed reforms;
- mobilize the grassroots to support the cause; and
- educate the public about the importance of reforming the children’s mental health system.
The Need for Reform
Despite the numerous studies and task forces that clearly document the inadequacies in the child mental health service system, efforts to improve the system have been piecemeal. The Surgeon General reports that 1 in 5 kids has a mental health problem. Virginia’s Department of Behavioral Health and Developmental Services estimates that between 92,000 and 111,000 Virginia children and adolescents have a serious emotional disturbance. Only one in five, however, receives needed treatment.
Many children go unserved because:
- the system is fragmented and uncoordinated;
- service availability and quality vary tremendously from locality to locality;
- community-based services are particularly lacking; and
- there is a severe shortage of professionals trained to treat child and adolescent disorders.
For more information, read The Overview of the Campaign for Children's Mental Health (pdf).
See Also
Policy Goals
Campaign Leadership
Partnering Organizations
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