The Maryland Department of Health is building a new roadmap for childhood behavior health, aimed at improving policy and taking actionable steps to better mental health for youth across the state.

“We are making vital improvements — including investments in crisis services for youth, and new school-based initiatives, in partnership with sister agencies,” said Maryland Health Secretary Dr. Laura Herrera Scott. “We also know that significant gaps remain and that not all children and youth are getting care when they need it.”

MDH will team up with the Maryland Coalition of Families, state’s leading organization that helps families and youth navigate the behavioral health system, and Manatt Health, a policy and strategy firm that recently completed a national plan addressing the behavioral health crisis in youth.

The organizations will work together on an initial assessment of children’s mental health in the state.

Then, by the end of the year, they will develop an initial set of recommendations and prepare a detailed map of proposed policy changes and steps to better behavioral health.

Maryland, like much of the nation, is seeing concerning trends in childhood mental health.

MDH’s most recent youth risk behavior survey found that about one third of all students in Maryland reported feeling hopeless or sad between 2021 and 2022.

LGBTQ+ students reported they often did not feel safe talking to an adult about their issues. About 68% reported sometimes, rarely, or never feeling that they could talk to an adult about their feelings. That’s compared to 54% of heterosexual students.

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 29% of male and 57% of female students reported feeling sadness nationally.