Department of Health and Human Services
Office of the Surgeon General

The burden of suffering experienced by children with mental health needs and their families has created a health crisis in this country. Growing numbers of children are suffering needlessly because their emotional, behavioral, and developmental needs are not being met by those very institutions which were explicitly created to take care of them. It is time that we as a Nation took seriously the task of preventing mental health problems and treating mental illnesses in youth.

The mental health needs of our children have elicited interest from the highest level of government, including the White House and members of both the House of Representatives and the Senate. This Report of the Surgeon General's Conference on Children's Mental Health: A National Action Agenda represents an extraordinary level of collaboration among three major Federal Departments: the Department of Health and Human Services, the Department of Education, and the Department of Justice.

This report introduces a blueprint for addressing children's mental health in the United States. It reflects the culmination of a number of significant activities over the past year. On March 20, 2000, a White House Meeting launched a new public-private effort to improve the appropriate diagnosis and treatment of children with emotional and behavioral conditions. Serious concerns were raised about the appropriate diagnosis and treatment of emotional and behavioral difficulties in children, and the need to take steps to address this issue.