10-Year Mental Health Plan

The 10-Year Mental Health Plan is the result of a robust feedback process that included input from hundreds of interested parties statewide through focus groups, workgroups, public sessions, and written comments. It takes a comprehensive and innovative approach to address the mental health needs of people across their life span.

​The Plan envisions a statewide mental health system that provides:

• access to the full continuum of care, including community education and engagement
• prevention and early intervention services
• outpatient, inpatient and crisis supports and services
• child-focused strategies and recommendations
• integration of mental health and primary health care
• intensified efforts to address suicide prevention

The Plan includes alternatives to long wait times in emergency departments for psychiatric hospitalizations, such as mobile crisis services; incentives to increase psychiatric bed capacity; increased support for those transitioning to and from higher levels of mental health care; and more peer support as people with a mental illness navigate their way through the system of care.

The Plan’s recommendations highlight and reflect both the stakeholder input received and include action steps on how the Department and stakeholders will implement those recommendations, funding benchmarks, and potential legal and regulatory changes.