Legislature Examines Children’s Mental Health Ahead of 2025 Session

Texas lawmakers have made great strides in their ongoing investment in mental health services and support for children and their families, and that must continue if Texas is to improve such access to care and reduce the risk of behavioral health crises. 

That was the gist of joint testimony the Texas Medical Association and Texas Pediatric Society submitted to the Senate Health and Human Services Committee as it examines the topic as part of its interim charges leading up to the 2025 legislative session.  

“Unaddressed mental and behavioral health issues in children can have long-term negative effects on their physical health and social well-being. This underscores the significance of early intervention, assessment, treatment, and prevention as part of children’s comprehensive health care,” medicine wrote.  

Building on the state’s ongoing investments, many of which TMA has supported over the years, TMA and TPS recommended bolstering funding for: 

• Integrative behavioral health within primary care settings through the implementation of collaborative care models. 

• The Child Psychiatry Access Network and Texas Child Health Access Through Telemedicine.  

• School-based health care centers, especially in rural areas, which can help improve access to care and academic performance among students and mitigate emergency room use. 

• Medicaid coverage of intensive outpatient and partial hospitalization behavioral health services. 

• Additional postpartum depression screening coverage by Medicaid and the Children’s Health Insurance Program. 

• Medicaid payments for licensed mental health professionals who work under a supervising physician to address the mental health workforce shortage. 

• Community mental health care facilities to provide meaningful access for vulnerable patients statewide. 

Among dozens of state priorities issued in the spring, Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick charged the Senate committee with examining “care and services currently available to the growing population of Texas children with high-acuity mental and behavioral health needs,” as well as making recommendations “to improve access to care and services for these children that will support family preservation and prevent them from entering the child welfare system.”

Visit TMA’s state advocacy webpage for more information on TMA legislative testimonies and priorities.