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Creates a Youth Mental Health Research Initiative at the National Institutes of Health to coordinate and fund research on youth mental health. The initiative is led by the Director of the National Institute of Mental Health working with two other NIH institutes to study resilience and improve how mental health care is identified and delivered where youth live, learn, and play. Authorizes $100,000,000 per year for fiscal years 2025 through 2030 to carry out the initiative. The law focuses on social, behavioral, cognitive, and developmental research and on improving targeting and delivery of interventions in clinical and community settings, especially to reach youth at risk or in crisis.
The bill invests $100M annually to strengthen youth mental health research, workforce capacity, community detection and equity—trading near-term federal spending and the slow pace of research-to-care translation for the prospect of better-targeted, more equitable mental health services for children and communities over time.
Children and youth will gain access to better-targeted mental health interventions as federally funded research improves design and delivery in schools and communities.
Parents, families and local communities will receive strengthened capacity-building tools for early detection and crisis response, improving local ability to identify and care for youth at risk.
Racial and ethnic minority youth may see improved equity in mental health services because the bill directs research attention to minority health disparities and inclusive approaches.
Parents and families may not see immediate improvements in clinical services because NIH-funded research can take years to translate into front-line care.
Rural communities and some minority or underserved populations risk being left out if research prioritization is too narrow or collaborations do not reach all regions, producing uneven benefits.
Taxpayers will fund $100M per year (2025–2030), which could divert federal resources from other priorities or increase deficits if the spending is not offset.
Introduced April 1, 2025 by Bonnie Watson Coleman · Last progress April 1, 2025