This bill (the EARLY Minds Act) would change part of the Public Health Service Act. It adds prevention and early intervention services to the list of items a State can include in its plan for Block Grants for Community Mental Health Services. A State plan may describe evidence-based prevention and early intervention strategies and programs to prevent, delay, or reduce the severity and onset of mental illness and behavioral problems, including programs for children and adolescents.
The bill lets a State that includes those strategies spend up to 5 percent of its annual block grant allotment to support prevention and early intervention services. It also requires the Secretary of Health and Human Services to send a report to Congress no later than 1 year after enactment and then every two years. Each report must list which States used the option, describe their activities, show the populations served (including age and other demographics), report outcomes such as reduced delays in access to care and reduced severity of onset of serious mental illness or serious emotional disturbance, and include any other information the Secretary finds necessary.
If your State chooses to use this option, it could use up to 5 percent of its community mental health block grant money to fund prevention and early intervention programs for people of any age, including children and teens. The federal government will collect information and report to Congress about which States use the option, who was served, and the outcomes reported by the States. The bill creates a State option; it does not itself require any State to start programs.
The bill allows States to spend not more than 5 percent of their annual block grant allotment for prevention and early intervention under this program. No publicly available information on total federal costs, changes to federal spending, or specific State budgeting effects is provided in the bill text.
No publicly available information.
No publicly available information.