Over the past several years, our country has made important strides in increasing awareness of the importance of mental health care. Nevertheless, awareness is not enough to break down the barriers to equal and appropriate care for those with mental health challenges. There has never been a more important time for decisive action. In some areas of the country, we are seeing progress taking shape, led by committed individuals and groups who are prioritizing positive change.
According to the California Health Care Foundation (CHCF) approximately 1 in every 20 California lives with a serious mental illness that makes it difficult to carry out major life activities. These numbers unfortunately only get worse among children, as 1 in every 13 California child is diagnosed with a brain disorder that limits participation in daily activities. Confronted with these troubling numbers, Governor Gavin Newsom has made a visionary investment in mental health care for his state, proposing a state budget that expands options for treatment in an effort to decrease the impact of untreated mental illness on families and communities throughout the state. In addition to expanding efforts toward early detection and intervention, this initiative would significantly increase funding for housing and treatment for those with diagnosed mental health conditions. Governor Newsom also proposed appointing a new “mental health czar” to lead California’s progressive approach to mental health care and unite the voices of various advocacy groups and other stakeholders. Sacramento Mayor Darrell Steinberg — who founded the Steinberg Institute in 2015 to advance sound public policy on issues of brain health — has backed the proposal, demonstrating the growing political will around supporting mental health reform in California.
Governor Newsom has also appointed Dr. Nadine Burke Harris to be California’s first-ever surgeon general. Dr. Harris is the founder and CEO of the Center for Youth Wellness in San Francisco, an organization that aims to improve the health of children exposed to early toxic stress and trauma. Dr. Harris also leads the Bay Area Research Consortium on Toxic Stress and Health, serves as a member of the American Academy of Pediatrics’ National Advisory Board for Screening, and is on a committee for the National Academy of Medicine. A pioneer in the field of prevention, Dr. Burke Harris is a strong choice to help turn Governor Newsom’s vision for mental health care into a reality.
These policy developments are a major victory for improving mental health care in our country. Governor Newsom has positioned the state of California at the forefront of changing how state governments prioritize and budget for care, and has set the standard for the rest of the nation to follow. In a health care system that tends to focus on treating the most visible systems as quickly as possible, this is an important move toward a more holistic model of care. We live in a nation that has the resources, but has never had the vision. Governor Newsom’s revolutionary proposal has the potential to spark change across the nation and move us toward a new paradigm, one in which care for brain health is given equal weight as care for other parts of the physical body.
