Early childhood mental health: services that can save a life.

The Give a Kid a Chance Omnibus Mental Health Services Act of 2003 (H.R.81) is a worthwhile proposal that endorses mental health services for children, adolescents, and their families. House Representative Sheila Jackson-Lee of Texas, who is the author of H.R. 81, provides a convincing argument about the need for mental health specialty services for children, adolescents, and their families (Thomas.loc.gov, 2003). Currently, a substantial portion of the pre-adult population has some sort of mental/emotional problem and would benefit by having access to mental health services. She proposes that early intervention for childhood mental disorders will result in optimal psychosocial outcomes during the teenage years and into adulthood. H.R. 81 will be examined using a policy analysis approach. The analysis will explore the description of the problem, significance of the problem situation, assessment and outcomes of prior efforts, need for analysis, major stakeholders, goals and objectives, measures of effectiveness, potential solutions, alternatives, future consequences, spillovers and externalities, constraints and political feasibility, and policy recommendations.