SPRINGFIELD, Ill. (WAND) — October is National Depression and Mental Health Screening Month and the Pritzker administration continues to advocate for young people to receive behavioral healthcare.

Sad student, mental health

Gov. JB Pritzker signed a bill into law last year calling for a clear, consistent and comprehensive way for families to find mental and behavioral healthcare options for young children and teens. The law created an inter-agency team to improve service coordination, implement new technology to refer families to resources and increase capacity to meet demand for care.

"With resources available in every community, we can keep in-need youth close to their support systems," Pritzker said. "That's vitally important. You can't have a support system that's 100 miles away from where a child lives. It just doesn't work."

The law has also allowed Illinois to study workforce shortages across for children's mental health, substance use and developmental disabilities. Although, the Illinois Department of Human Services knows some downstate families still have to travel hours to receive behavioral healthcare.

"We want to ensure that youth that are in crisis or are dealing with an array of mental health conditions can greatly benefit from this model which seeks to keep them in their communities, near their families, schools and other supports and out of inpatient settings, which can be disruptive to their and their families lives and somewhat traumatic," said DHS Medicaid Administrator Kelly Cunningham.

Pritzker said he is committed to ensuring there are mental healthcare providers available across the entire state. The governor also noted that behavioral healthcare is a bipartisan issue, even though some lawmakers may argue about how much to spend on it.

The children's behavioral health transformation initiative is already breaking down barriers to critical mental health services.

"You want to walk through a front door where someone, both technology and a person, can help you navigate where you need to go first to get evaluated and then where to get treatment, what kind of treatment is appropriate," Pritzker said. "These are very difficult challenges, especially in a world where people don't talk about mental health enough." 

The Fiscal Year 2025 budget included $13 million dollars for grants to address mental health on college campuses as well. 

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