“Prevention Works. Treatment is Effective. People Recover.” So goes this year’s slogan for Mental Health Awareness Month. May 9th is a special day in that month – it’s Children’s Mental Health Awareness Day. Today, advocates, families, children, and youth come together to show their support for comprehensive and effective approaches to children’s mental health services. It’s part of the greater effort throughout the month of May to raise awareness of mental illness and the need for services throughout the state.

In 2009, more than a quarter of Arkansas youth reported feeling sad or hopeless, and 12% attempted suicide. Efforts around the state to expand community-based services, establish family networks, and reform the children’s mental health system are ensuring that children and their families receive the support they need. Arkansas’s System of Care is helping facilitate coordinated, community-based team approaches to involve a range of partners in ensuring children and families receive the treatment and supports they need to recover.

The fact that this year’s slogan mentions prevention and treatment is timely given some of the big changes going on in the health system in Arkansas. As entire families are able to access health coverage through the Medicaid expansion and Health Insurance Exchanges called for in the Affordable Care Act, whole families can receive preventive services and be treated together to improve long-term outcomes. The ACA also puts protections in place to make sure that mental health is covered equivalently to physical health conditions.

Despite these gains, potential challenges lie ahead. As the legislature debates how to manage a looming Medicaid budget shortfall in the upcoming 2013 session, advocates must work to make sure a full range of physical and mental health services for Arkansas’s most vulnerable children and youth are maintained.

You can come out to show your support for mental health awareness this Friday, May 11th at 11 a.m. on the Capitol steps as Governor Beebe declares that day “Mental Health Awareness Day” in Arkansas. The Mental Health Council of Arkansas, the Division of Behavioral Health Services, and other behavioral health partners will be there showing their support. Hope to see you there!