Testimony Before the Senate Committee on Health and Human Services

Carolyn D. Gorman testified before the Texas Senate Health & Human Services Committee's public hearing on children's mental health and other committee topics.

Thank you for the opportunity to serve as a witness on the important topic of children’s mental health. I’m Carolyn Gorman, I’m a policy researcher, and I currently work as a Paulson Policy Analyst at the Manhattan Institute, a non-partisan, non-profit think tank, where my research is focused on the impacts of US policy on mental health and illness. I am also a resident of Grapevine, Texas as of December of last year.

Today, I’ll provide some background on a current, primary approach in mental health policy (nationwide and in Texas), which has been one of a public health model. I’ll describe some effects of this approach on access to care and services available, and identify some downsides.

Today, more is grouped under the umbrella term of “mental health problems” than ever before. Here’s one way to lay this out: 100 percent of youth (and adults) have emotions and experiences that are not pleasant or desirable but are a normal reality of human life—like feeling anxious or depressed, and facing failures and hardships. About 20 percent of youth may have mild or moderate emotional, behavioral, or developmental challenges that are classified as a diagnosis in the DSM, the main guide used in psychiatry. About 6 percent of youth have       serious emotional disturbances that cause substantial impairment and disruption in everyday life. This is the group that any public mental health system has a primary responsibility to serve.

Click here to read the full testimony.

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Carolyn Gorman is a Paulson Policy Analyst at the Manhattan Institute.