Children’s mental health tops priorities

Since the start of the pandemic, the issue of children’s mental health has been top of mind not just for policymakers, but parents and teachers. With the unprecedented disruption caused by closed schools and canceled activities leading to overwhelming demand for services, the search has been on for ways to fill those needs.

A number of proposals have been put forward during this year’s short legislative session for tackling this crisis, which has manifested in overwhelmed emergency departments and long waits for services that often demand immediate attention. As should have been expected, the remedies will not come cheap.

As reporting by the CT Mirror attests, the price tag could run into the hundreds of millions of dollars. One measure, Senate Bill 2, is projected to cost up to $210 million over two years to pay for increased child care rates for providers and their employers. More money would go toward broadening access to mobile crisis services, while different proposals would dedicate separate funds toward other needs.

Those proposals are matched by increased demand, including huge jumps in the number of young people waiting at hospitals to receive services. Parents and caregivers who face a crisis in Connecticut are faced with an impossible choice of going to an emergency department and potentially facing waits that are hours long or worse, knowing that waiting in a hospital is helping no one, or trying alternative means to get through the worst of a situation. There are no good answers.

Legislative leaders, to their credit, say they are committed to spending what it takes to alleviate this situation. “The money needed to fund these bills will be in the budget,” House Speaker Matthew Ritter said.

At the same time that word of the proposals’ high price tag was going around came the most recent news about the state’s financial situation. It’s the opposite of what many in Connecticut had come to expect as the norm in a state that had been characterized by constant budget shortfalls.

Gov. Ned Lamont’s budget office recently projected a single-year surplus of $3.95 billion. That’s up from recent projections, and bigger than the entire rainyday fund, which has been statutorily maxed out. Some is from COVID relief and a rising stock market is still the biggest contributor, but there are positive signs on many fronts. The state, for the moment, at least, has a lot of money.

A chunk of that will go toward tax cuts. There are limits on that based on rules regarding COVID relief funds, but Connecticut will surely find ways to reduce taxes in various ways. Other funds will go toward securing our long-term future, something that was too often neglected in the leaner years.

But when we look to current spending needs, it’s hard to come up with something more pressing than children’s mental health. The need is acute and the solution — more providers and improved access — is within our reach.

This is why state government exists in the first place, to take care of our most pressing needs. In a time of surplus, there is no better way to spend those dollars. The budget situation won’t last forever, but while it does we must prioritize.

The need is acute and the solution — more providers and improved access — is within our reach.