Leadership Council of Aging Organizations (LCAO), a coalition of 68 national nonprofit organizations concerned with the well-being of America’s older populations, wish to highlight pathways to more affordable and accessible behavioral health services and programs for older adults. We recommend 1) facilitating the growth of the behavioral health workforce; 2) ensuring mental health parity in Medicare; 3) increasing funding for proven federal programs to achieve improvements; 4) ensuring better integration of behavioral and physical health care; 5) robustly funding crisis support; and 6) removing remaining barriers to accessing telemental health care. The body of our letter identifies major barriers to care and includes general policy recommendations, and the appendix cites specific bipartisan legislation that aims to address some, or all of the issues raised. In some cases, where there is not yet proposed legislation that would accomplish our recommendations, we urge Congress to create new bills. 

Read the letter.

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