Ensuring the Nation’s Mental Health: The Role of Federal Agencies

Behavioral health care, which addresses mental health and substance use, has been neglected by our health care system. People with severe mental illnesses and other chronic conditions such as diabetes, asthma, heart disease, and obesity, die earlier than do people without such conditions. Behavioral health conditions may not be properly addressed because of a lack of community resources and poor health insurance coverage for such conditions. The federal government — in partnership with states, communities, consumers, families, and the private sector — has responded with proposals for health care reform that include mental health care.