By Tim Mastro

President Joe Biden announced a strategy to address the country’s mental health crisis in his first State of the Union on Tuesday.

The White House said the United States is facing an unprecedented mental health issue among people of all ages. Two out of 5 adults report symptoms of anxiety or depression, while Black and Brown communities are disproportionately undertreated — even as their burden of mental illness has continued to rise. Even before the pandemic, rates of depression and anxiety were inching higher, the White House added.

There is mounting evidence that social media is harmful to many kids’ and teens’ mental health, well-being and development, the administration said. The U.S. surgeon general has noted, “When not deployed responsibly and safely, these tools can pit us against each other, reinforce negative behaviors like bullying and exclusion, and undermine the safe and supportive environments young people need and deserve.”

During his speech, President Biden called on Congress to strengthen privacy protections, ban targeted advertising to children and demand that technology companies stop collecting kids’ personal data.

His national mental health strategy plans to “strengthen system capacity, connect more Americans to care and create a continuum of support, transforming our health and social services infrastructure to address mental health holistically and equitably.”

He hopes to do this by “investing in proven programs that bring providers into behavioral health,” President Biden said. His fiscal year 2023 budget will include $700 million for initiatives like the National Health Service Corps, the Behavioral Health Workforce Education and Training Program for Professionals and the Minority Fellowship Program, which provide training, access to scholarships and loan repayment to mental health and substance use disorder clinicians practicing in rural and other underserved communities.

The president also will pilot approaches to train a diverse group of paraprofessionals, build a national certification program for peer specialists, promote the mental well-being of the front-line health workforce, invest in research for new practice models and expand the availability of evidence-based community mental health services.

The 988 crisis response hotline will also be launched this summer. President Biden said this will create a national network of local crisis centers, fortified by backup centers, to answer calls and texts, which he hopes will minimize unnecessary emergency department visits.

In an effort to connect more Americans to mental health care, the administration is proposing that “all health plans cover robust behavioral health services with an adequate network of providers, including three behavioral health visits each year without cost-sharing.”

It is also looking to integrate mental health and substance use treatment into primary care, improve veterans’ access to same-day behavioral health care, expand access to virtual options, boost support in schools and colleges, increase navigation resources and embed mental health and substance use providers into community-based settings.

Finally, President Biden’s address touched on how he wants to “support Americans by creating healthy environments.”

The plan for this goal includes strengthening children’s privacy and banning targeted advertising for kids online, investing in research on social media’s mental harms and instituting stronger online protections for young people.

President Biden also wants to expand early-childhood and school-based intervention services, train social and human services professionals in basic mental health skills and increase behavioral health resources for justice-involved populations.