Authorizing the Council Committee on Public Health and Human Services to hold hearings regarding the findings and recommendations of the Mayor's Blue Ribbon Commission on Children's Behavioral Health.

WHEREAS, In February 2006, Mayor Street convened the Blue Ribbon Commission on Children’s Behavioral Health (“Commission”), a group of 48 knowledgeable and committed people that share an interest in the behavioral health needs of Philadelphia’s children; and

WHEREAS, The Commission was charged with developing a framework and set of recommendations to improve the Philadelphia community’s ability to promote social and emotional wellness in all of the City’s children and to rethink the traditional ways of responding to those needs and to be innovative and creative in finding solutions; and

WHEREAS, In Philadelphia and elsewhere, studies show that behavioral health services are fragmented, inflexible, and not sufficiently family and consumer driven and no single service system, operating independently of others, can provide the holistic approach that is needed to address the complex and multifaceted issues that children and families in Philadelphia face daily; and

WHEREAS, Last year, Philadelphia had approximately 405,000 children and youth under age 19 and of this population, an estimated 35% live in poverty, 1,168 were abused or physically neglected, 1 in 3 were behind in reading when starting kindergarten in City schools, 4 of 10 entering 9th grade in City schools will not graduate in four years, 12 children and youth were victims of a major crime each day, and more than 2,250 juveniles were arrested for drug-related offenses and nearly 4,000 were arrested for major crimes, and these conditions and their consequences have a direct and significant effect on the behavioral health and well-being of Philadelphia’s children.

WHEREAS, And understanding these factors, the Commission aims to transform how Philadelphia addresses the behavioral health needs of all of its children so that they can develop into healthy and productive citizens; now therefore

RESOLVED, BY THE COUNCIL OF THE CITY OF PHILADELPHIA, That the Council Committee on Public Health and Human Services hold hearings regarding the findings and recommendations of the Mayor’s Blue Ribbon Commission on Children’s Behavioral Health.

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