Pediatric mental health crisis: Propelling the Surgeon General's advice to action

The nation is facing a pediatric mental health crisis that is years in the making. The pandemic potentiated the crisis by isolating youth and compounding family stressors. In response, the US Surgeon General issued an advisory in late 2021 recommending actions that health care and other sectors should take to improve youth well-being. Integrated care has a critical role to play in both implementing and moving beyond the Surgeon General's recommendations. The Collaborative Family Healthcare Association's Pediatric Special Interest Group (SIG) meets monthly to provide support and learning experiences and to promote dissemination of innovations to address the pediatric mental health crisis. In this article, we share recommendations, informed by the conversations in the CHFA Pediatric SIG, to propel the Surgeon General's advice into actions. We prioritize and emphasize structural changes that are needed in the health care system and highlight practical and actionable steps individual providers can take to increase cross sector collaboration. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2022 APA, all rights reserved).