[Congressional Record Volume 149, Number 44 (Wednesday, March 19, 2003)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages E521-E522]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                 THE CHILD HEALTHCARE CRISIS RELIEF ACT

                                 ______
                                 

                        HON. PATRICK J. KENNEDY

                            of rhode island

                    in the house of representatives

                       Wednesday, March 19, 2003

  Mr. KENNEDY of Rhode Island. Mr. Speaker, our Nation has been blessed 
for more than two centuries. At no time in the history of mankind has a 
society prospered like ours has. Through an industrious spirit, a deep 
sense of entrepreneurship, and a land teeming with natural resources 
and human talent, we have created a nation that is the dream of those 
in the world who lack our good fortune. We have led the world in the 
area of biotechnology and medical research for almost an entire 
century. There is no place else on Earth where people flock by the 
thousands to obtain the best that the arts and sciences of medicine 
have to offer.
  With that said, there has been, however, a well kept secret regarding 
our nation's healthcare system, which was only recently brought to 
light by former United States Surgeon General Dr. David Satcher. In his 
landmark 1999 report, Mental Health: A Report of the Surgeon General, 
Dr. Satcher describes the crisis faced by our Nation's children who 
suffer from mental illness. According to this report, one out of every 
five children in America suffers from a diagnosable mental disorder, 
yet only one-third of them receive mental healthcare treatment.
  Part of the reason for this alarming statistic is that mental health 
services specific to children are in very short supply. I hear time and 
time again the frustrations of pediatricians who cannot find available 
mental healthcare professionals for their patients who require 
psychological evaluations. There are many parents in our nation who are 
forced to relinquish custody of their disturbed children because 
outpatient psychiatric services are either not available or the wait 
for an appointment is weeks to months away. In my own state of Rhode 
Island, a physician affiliated with a leading psychiatric children's 
hospital told me recently that on any given day, up to one-third of the 
hospitalized youth could be home if only outpatient services were 
available.

[[Page E522]]

  That is why today Congresswoman Ileana Ros-Lehtinen and I are 
introducing the Child Healthcare Crisis Relief Act. This is a bill 
designed to help alleviate the paucity of mental health services for 
our nation's youth by providing incentives for mental healthcare 
workers to specialize in the treatment of children and adolescents.
  The statistics are quite startling:
  13,700,000 of America's children and adolescents have a diagnosable 
mental disorder.
  There are 6,000,000 to 9,000,000 children and adolescents in the 
United States who meet the definition of having a serious emotional 
disturbance.
  Approximately 5 to 9 percent of children and adolescents in the 
United States meet the definition of extreme functional impairment.
  The demand for the services of child and adolescent psychiatry is 
projected to increase by 100 percent between 1995 and 2020.
  There are approximately 513 students for each school counselor in 
United States schools. This ratio is more than double the recommended 
ratio of 250 students for each school counselor.
  The Child Healthcare Crisis Relief Act creates incentives to help 
recruit and retain child mental health professionals providing direct 
clinical care, and to improve, expand, or help create programs to train 
child mental health professionals through the following mechanism:
  Loan repayment and scholarships for child mental health and school-
based service professionals to help pay back educational loans.
  Grants to graduate schools to provide for internships and field 
placements in child mental health services.
  Grants to help with pre-service and in-service training of 
paraprofessionals who work in clinical mental health settings for 
children.
  Grants to graduate schools to help develop and expand child and 
adolescent mental health programs.
  This bill also allows for an increase in the number of Child and 
Adolescent Psychiatrists under the Medicare Graduate Medical Education 
Program and extends the board eligibility period for residents and 
fellows from four years to six years.
  The Child Healthcare Crisis Relief Act is not only about providing 
incentives for health care workers, it is also a bill about expanding 
treatment options for children in need. Expanding treatment options 
expands the opportunities that children with mental health concerns 
have to grow and become happy and productive members of our society.
  Children who do not receive adequate treatment for mental health 
problems start out in life with an albatross around their necks with 
significantly reduced opportunities. These children have a high 
probability of becoming involved with illicit substances, dropping out 
of school, and committing felonies including homicide. Just as tragic, 
many of these children will never make it into adulthood because of 
suicide.
  The hope and the potential for endless possibilities that we, as a 
people, attribute to children are diminished with each child struggling 
with mental illness who does not receive adequate treatment. We may 
choose not to see their struggle out of ignorance or fear, but as an 
old English proverb says: ``We never know the worth of water `til the 
well is dry''.
  Mr. Speaker, we cannot in good conscience sit back and allow the well 
to dry up when we know how to find a spring that can feed it. I, 
therefore, ask my colleagues to lend their support for my Child 
Healthcare Crisis Relief Act.

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