A group of lawmakers spent nearly eight hours Tuesday studying the complexities of childhood mental illness, an issue legislators have indicatedwill be a high priority for the legislative session that begins in January.
Lawmakers heard from physicians, educators and juvenile justice experts who outlined the need for a better-funded, integrated mental health care model that takes pressure off schools, steers children away from the juvenile justice system and provides more screenings for children and teens.
One doctor told the Texas House Select Committee on Mental Health that unless the state increases Medicaid reimbursement rates for providers that treat childhood mental illness, Texas will continue to lack an adequate number of those providers, echoing the state’s broader physician shortage.
[For more of this story, written by Alexa Garcia-Ditta, go to https://www.texasobserver.org/...-hearing-kids-texas/]
Comments (0)