The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (ACA), which was signed into law in 2010, has several provisions that could greatly improve the behavioral health of children and adolescents in the United States. It requires that many insurance plans cover mental health and substance use disorder services, rehabilitative services to help support people with behavioral […]
Administration & leadership
Collecting Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity Data in Electronic Health Records
Collecting Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity (SO/GI) data in electronic health records (EHRs) is essential to providing high-quality, patient-centered care to LGBT individuals. SO/GI data collection has been recommended by both the Institute of Medicine and the Joint Commission as a way to learn about which populations are being served, and to measure quality of care provided to LGBT people. […]
Economic Costs of Youth Disadvantage and High-Return Opportunities for Change
The White House’s Council of Economic Advisers has released a report on closing opportunity gaps for disadvantaged youth that highlights two promising programs: One Summer Jobs Plus (OSP) and Becoming a Man (BAM). With Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention-supported evaluation grants, the University of Chicago Crime Lab is currently testing both youth-focused delinquency […]
My Brother’s Keeper Task Force: One-Year Progress Report to the President
On February 27, 2014 President Barack Obama launched “My Brother’s Keeper” (MBK). The President’s call to action was a reflection of his commitment to close opportunity gaps still faced by too many young people, and often faced by boys and young men of color in particular. The President’s vision found its roots in the idea that “my neighbor’s child […]
Economic Benefits of Reducing Racial and Ethnic Inequality
A few decades from now, the nation’s racial and ethnic makeup will be increasingly different than it is today. The U.S. Census Bureau projects that the majority of the U.S. population will be people of color by 2043. This change is already happening at the state-level throughout our nation, and with it comes an important […]
Racial and Ethnic Disparity and Disproportionality in Child Welfare and Juvenile Justice
Overrepresentation of children of color in the juvenile justice and child welfare systems has been statistically proven in various studies over the years. Though this fact has been generally accepted and effort has been made to reduce disproportionality within both systems, much work remains to be done. In March 2008, a symposium titled “The Overrepresentation […]