Washington Post Editorial: D.C.’s bad mental-health report card

For the third year in a row, the Post editorial board echoed Children’s Law Centers call for improvements in DC’s mental health services for children.

The Post writes: “Progress is uneven. Judith Sandalow, executive director of the Children’s Law Center, thinks the city needs to do a better job of taking successful small programs and scaling them up to meet larger needs. Money, of course, is an issue, and that’s why it is maddening when the District doesn’t make the most of opportunities offered by federal funds. A case in point is the delay in implementing a two-year, $4.5 million home-visiting federal grant. The city received the grant in October 2012 but didn’t award the money to local providers until this January, which meant that fewer new mothers got parental support or help in identifying developmental concerns with their children.

There is no question that the District has made progress in mental health treatment since the era when dysfunctional agencies were placed under court control. That there has been improvement should be a spur to tackle the problems that still bar the city’s young from getting needed treatment.”