Behavioral health in the U.S. is under major scrutiny right now, specifically the question of how to take awareness of mental health and turn that awareness into real mental health access. Mental Health America has announced their new national priorities — which are meant to provide a roadmap for how to address mental health issues through various methods such as upstream work, protecting mental health coverage through Medicaid and the Affordable Care Act and creating a tenure-based peer workforce with lived experience. The overall message they are trying to communicate is that there are millions of people who will continue falling through the cracks unless tangible actions are taken to provide access to mental health services.
MHA also supports the preservation of and expansion of insurance coverage as states continue to change the Medicaid program and the ACA by enforcing parity, providing accurate provider directories and ensuring adequate networks. The fact remains that coverage is the gateway to accessing mental health services; therefore MHA is advocating for coverage parity enforcement and accurate provider directories. Therefore it’s imperative for people to know that having insurance doesn’t guarantee them access to timely, person-centered care; instead people are placed on waitlists for services that are not tailored to their needs and can wait weeks to receive those services. Access is not just about having coverage; it’s about receiving timely, person-centered care.
The peer support workforce is an important component of their overall plan. Individuals who have overcome mental illness or substance use, provide exceptional opportunities for someone else to receive support. Yet they are consistently under compensated, don’t have unsupportive training, & limited reimbursement. MHA wants to help pass laws for community based, non coercive alternatives to crisis, such as peer respites and mobile crisis teams, so that individuals in need do not have to automatically use the police or hospital to receive help.
For persons in need of assistance, these new service options could create a less intimidating & more humane experience when needing mental health treatment, thereby improving their connection to providers for assistance. Instead of just going to a clinician in a clinic setting, they could work with trained peers who have their same lived experience in more social or informal public spaces, & provide assistance in navigating to the various systems that exist to provide support.
The 2026 priorities highlight that true access to mental health treatment, is not only determined by the number of providers; but by the culture of the community, the trust the individual has in the community, as well as the ability of the individual to be able to utilize the existing supportive options.
Source: Mental Health America – Mental Health America 2026 Priorities
Leave a Comment