Policy Goals

The overall goal of the Campaign for Children’s Mental Health is 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. Children who receive services as soon as they begin to show symptoms are less likely to escalate to the point of crisis, which reduces the need for more expensive and restrictive treatments.

The Campaign will work to achieve the following policy goals:

• Increase the array of community-based services (both public and private), particularly intermediate services that avoid over-reliance on residential treatment.
  
  
• Establish an integrated and consolidated system within state government with clear authority and adequate resources.
  
  
• Increase uniformity of the system statewide so that families throughout Virginia, regardless of the jurisdiction in which they live, can access appropriate services.
  
  
• Enhance the training of the current workforce and the capacity of the future workforce to treat children with evidence-based, best practice services.

General Assembly 2010

2010 General Assembly Budget Summary (pdf posted 03.19.10)

Campaign for Children’s Mental Health presentation to Senate Finance Subcommittee on Health and Human Resources, February 8, 2010

Health Care Budget Amendments

Children’s Mental Health Items in the Kaine Budget

Campaign for Children’s Mental Health position statement on the proposed closure of state beds: Child Psychiatric Beds Cannot Be Closed Safely Without System Reform