Today, we rise in strong support of the reintroduction of the Strengthening Medicaid for Serious Mental Illness Act.

Our community faces a mental health crisis. LGBTQIA+ youth are more than four times as likely to attempt suicide than their peers. As they transition into adulthood, they often lose access to consistent, affirming care.

Since 1979, HMI has delivered intensive, life-saving care to some of our community’s most vulnerable youth. But we do this fully at the generosity of grants and contributions —because Medicaid, as it stands, does not recognize or reimburse the kinds of community-centered, integrated services that actually work.

H.R. 4331 directly addresses this by providing states with increased federal Medicaid funding for intensive community-based services—services that are trauma-informed, person-centered, and rooted in dignity.

This bill promotes continuity of care, supports community-based interventions and emphasizes evidence-based practices like assertive community treatment.

By encouraging states to invest in integrated, accessible, and culturally competent mental health support, this legislation helps us meet people where they are—literally and figuratively—and empowers them to stay in their communities, in their homes, and on their paths to recovery.

H.R. 4331 affirms what we at HMI have always known – that recovery should be possible outside hospital walls, and that Medicaid should support care that reflects the lives, identities, and realities of the people it serves.

Thank you, and I urge your full support for this vital legislation.

Amy Harclerode
Chief Executive Officer
Hetrick-Martin Institute