HOUSE JOINT RESOLUTION NO. 774 Offered January 19, 2007 Recognizing that mental health services should be provided by and funded through the state’s mental health, mental retardation and substance abuse systems and that the foster care system should not become the default mental health system for children. ---------- Patron-- Kilgore ---------- Committee Referral Pending ----------

WHEREAS, the World Health Organization estimates that 10 to 20 percent of children suffer from one or more mental health or behavioral problems; and

WHEREAS, the foster care system was created to provide treatment and services for abused and neglected children; and

WHEREAS, the Comprehensive Services Act was enacted to better coordinate the delivery of foster care services and services that support individual special education plans; and

WHEREAS, community services boards are recognized in the Code of Virginia as the single point of entry into the mental health, mental retardation, and substance abuse system; and

WHEREAS, children are not a priority population for the funding of mental health services in the Commonwealth; and

WHEREAS, very limited state funding is available to serve children with mental health needs who are not a part of mandated population of CSA; now therefore, be it

RESOLVED by the House of Delegates, the Senate concurring, That the General Assembly recognize that the planning, provision, and funding of mental health services for children should be the responsibility of the state’s mental health, mental retardation, and substance abuse system and that neither the foster care system nor the CSA be the default system for the provision and funding of children’s mental health services.

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED by the House of Delegates, the Senate concurring, that the Secretary of Health and Human Resources develop budget recommendations for the 2008 - 2010 Biennial Budget that facilitates service delivery through the state’s mental health, mental retardation, and substance abuse system.