Mayor Gray Receives Citywide Plan for Improving Mental Health of District’s Youth

Plan Focuses on Prevention, Reducing Stigma, and Empowering Young People
Washington D.C - Today, Mayor Vincent C. Gray and members of the media and the public received a detailed briefing on a community-based plan for mental health for youth ages 12-24, presented by Creating Community Solutions DC.

The plan – part of a national dialogue on mental health launched by President Obama last June – was developed by a 50-member action team convened by the Mayor and composed of representatives from District agencies, non-profit organizations, service providers and District youth. It was an outgrowth of a set of priorities created at Mayor Gray’s Citywide Summit on Mental Health, held this past October.

“This community plan sends a clear message to all District residents that we need to make mental health a top priority for our young people,” said Mayor Gray. “Too many youth in our city struggle with mental-health challenges. This plan, building on the important work already underway, helps point the way by focusing on prevention, reducing the stigma associated with mental-health issues, and engaging youth directly to address their own mental health.”

At the Citywide Summit on Mental Health, hundreds of residents, providers, advocates, and public officials joined the Mayor to better understand mental illness, talk about ways to reduce stigma associated with mental-health treatment, and develop community solutions that could build on existing services. As a result of their efforts, five primary areas of action were identified, and the final plan has multiple recommendations for addressing each of them:

To better support early identification and prevention of mental-health issues for youth and families;
To significantly increase community awareness about mental health, thereby reducing the stigma that can be associated with treatment of mental-health concerns;
To empower and engage youth to take charge of their own mental health;
To expand mental-health curricula and knowledge to health-care providers outside the mental-health arena; and
To effectively support Transition Aged Youth (TAY) as they move toward greater economic independence.
It is estimated that, in any given year, one in five adults will experience a mental-health challenge – but less than 40 percent receive treatment. Further, although three-quarters of mental illnesses emerge by the age of 24, only about half of children with mental-health problems receive treatment.

“Mental health can be a complex issue, but this group of community stakeholders has done an exceptional job in identifying what needs to be done to better equip our youth as well as those who serve them – whether in schools, youth programs, or in the community,” said Stephen T. Baron, Director of the District’s Department of Behavioral Health (DBH). “This plan integrates well with the efforts of my agency and other District agencies and community agencies engaged in this work, and it points us to the critical next steps we need to take to improve the health of our youth.”

The plan is available on the Department of Behavioral Health’s website at www.dbh.dc.gov.