Making behavioral health work

In September, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) released the HHS Roadmap for Behavioral Health Integration, which sets out policies that will contribute to better integration of mental health and substance use care into the larger health care system. The roadmap advances President Biden’s Strategy to Address our National Mental Health Crisis and builds on the three pillars in the strategy: to strengthen system capacity, to connect Americans to care, and to support Americans by creating healthy environments. 

On December 13, the USC-Brookings Schaeffer Initiative on Health Policy hosted HHS Secretary Xavier Becerra for a fireside chat to discuss the administration’s efforts to advance the integration of behavioral health into health care and other services. The event concluded with a panel discussion among behavioral health experts and stakeholders, including HHS Deputy Secretary Andrea Palm. Complementing the convening, Brookings has released two new whitepapers on policies to strengthen mental health delivery. These whitepapers can be found here and here. 

Viewers submitted questions for speakers by emailing events@brookings.edu or via Twitter by using #MakingBHWork. 

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