42 U.S.C. § 254c–19 — Pediatric mental health care access grants

(a) In general. The Secretary — working through the Administrator of the Health Resources and Services Administration, together with other federal agencies — must award grants or cooperative agreements to states, political subdivisions of states, and Indian Tribes and Tribal organizations. The money is for building behavioral health into pediatric primary care. It does this by (1) helping start new statewide or regional pediatric mental health telehealth access programs, and (2) helping improve programs that already exist. (b) Program requirements. (1) In general. To use the grant, a pediatric mental health care telehealth access program must: (A) be a statewide or regional network of pediatric mental health teams that support pediatric primary care sites as one team; (B) support and grow organized networks of these teams so they can give consulting help to primary care sites; (C) study what consultation needs pediatric providers have most, and how they prefer to get consultation, training, and technical help; (D) build an online database and communication tools, including telehealth, to help pediatric practices get consulting support; (E) give fast statewide or regional phone or telehealth consultations when a pediatric primary care provider asks for one; (F) train pediatric primary care providers and give them technical help so they can spot, diagnose, treat, and refer children with behavioral health conditions early; (G) tell pediatric providers about pediatric mental health providers — like child and adolescent psychiatrists, developmental-behavioral pediatricians, psychologists, social workers, and counselors — and help them schedule and get technical assistance; (H) tell pediatric providers about community mental health services for children and help them make referrals; and (I) set up ways to measure and track whether pediatric primary care providers are getting more access to pediatric mental health services and getting better at spotting, treating, and referring children with mental health conditions. (2) Support to schools and emergency departments. (A) In general. Besides the required activities above, a program may also give information, consulting support, training, and technical help to (i) emergency departments, and (ii) state, local, and Tribal education agencies and elementary and secondary schools. (B) Requirements for certain recipients. A school-related recipient under (A)(ii) must operate consistently with subsections (a) and (c) of section 7101 of title 20 with respect to that assistance. (3) Pediatric mental health teams. A "pediatric mental health team" is a team with at least one case coordinator, at least one child and adolescent psychiatrist, and at least one licensed clinical mental health professional (such as a psychologist, social worker, or mental health counselor). It may also include a developmental-behavioral pediatrician. The team can be based regionally rather than locally. (c) Application. A state, political subdivision, Indian Tribe, or Tribal organization that wants a grant must apply to the Secretary in the way and with the information the Secretary requires, including a plan to fully evaluate what it does with the money. (d) Evaluation. A grant recipient must prepare and send the Secretary an evaluation of what it did with the grant money, including a process and outcome evaluation, in the form and on the schedule the Secretary sets. (e) Access to broadband. The Secretary may work with other agencies to make sure funding is available to help providers get reliable, high-speed internet. (f) Matching requirement. The Secretary cannot give a grant unless the recipient agrees to contribute non-federal money or in-kind resources equal to at least 20 percent of the federal grant amount, toward the costs of the work. (g) Technical assistance. The Secretary may (1) keep giving technical assistance to grant recipients, and (2) give a grant or contract to an eligible public or nonprofit entity to provide that technical assistance. (h) Authorization of appropriations. Congress authorized $31,000,000 for each fiscal year from 2023 through 2027 to carry out this section.