The state Department of Health has received a $2.2 million federal grant to expand mental health care services for youth ages 3 to 21 years old in the state.
Hawaii is one of 30 states to receive the Pediatric Mental Health Care Access grant, which will provide the state with $445,000 a year for the next five years, officials said.
The grant will be used to offer behavioral health services along with pediatric primary care using telehealth, which have increased during the COVID-19 pandemic, they said.
The pandemic has exacerbated the state’s shortage of primary care physicians and psychiatrists, according to the 2020 University of Hawaii Annual Report, and telehealth has been identified as a solution to bridge the gap and achieve health equity due to racial, ethnic and geographic disparities, according to health officials.
“During this critical time, children and youth continue to struggle with mental health issues under the unusual circumstances of COVID-19,” Danette Wong Tomiyasu, deputy director of DOH’s Health Resources Administration, said in a news release. “This grant will help our state to directly address some of the barriers to pediatric mental health care that Hawaii families are facing.”
The grant is part of the American Rescue Plan Act and will go to DOH’s Family Health Services Division, which is exploring how to implement the program at the state and community levels.