Sponsors (15)
The bill channels sustained federal research funding to improve prevention, treatment, and delivery of youth mental-health services—potentially yielding better long-term outcomes for children, schools, and researchers—while imposing modest federal costs and risking delayed practical benefits or diversion from immediate service needs.
Children and youth will gain expanded, research-backed prevention and treatment options and more effective targeting and delivery of care through a coordinated federal initiative funded at $100M per year.
Communities, schools, and local governments will receive improved tools and strategies to identify and support at-risk youth via research on resilience and community capacity.
Researchers and educational institutions will receive sustained investment that may advance social, behavioral, cognitive, and developmental science and support the research workforce.
Families and providers may not see practical improvements for years because research findings can take a long time to translate into new services.
Concentrating limited funds on research could divert attention and resources from immediate treatment capacity, leaving current patients and communities underserved.
Taxpayers will finance approximately $600 million total from 2025–2030 to support the initiative.
Based on analysis of 2 sections of legislative text.
Requires NIH to establish a coordinated Youth Mental Health Research Initiative and authorizes $100M per year for FY2025–2030 to support related research and collaboration.
Creates a Youth Mental Health Research Initiative at the NIH led by the NIMH Director and coordinated with the NICHD and NIMHD Directors to align and expand research on youth mental health. It directs research on social, behavioral, cognitive, and developmental factors, resilience and community capacity, identification and care for youth at risk or in crisis, and better ways to target and deliver mental health interventions where youth live, learn, and play. The bill authorizes $100 million per year for fiscal years 2025–2030 to carry out the initiative (authorization, not direct appropriations).
Introduced April 1, 2025 by Bonnie Watson Coleman · Last progress April 1, 2025