KCII News spoke with Senator Chuck Grassley about Mental Health Awareness Month and what can be done to address the mental health crisis among America’s youth. “We don’t have enough psychiatrists and enough psychologists to deal with all the problems we have, and they’re greater now, probably caused by the pandemic. And the social interaction that people love to have that make them real human they didn’t have for a couple of years. And so the situation is even worse, particularly among people still in school. And the mental health issues for people going to school is bad. Now at the Federal level we have several programs that will supplement State programs. But as a practical matter, mental health is probably handled fifty different ways in fifty different states. I think Iowa has made some good progress in the last ten years by having a program for more mental health beds for the screening of kids before they start to school. Do they have any mental issues, so we can preempt and intervene in those cases and get them help earlier than later. We have changed the funding of mental health from local property tax to the state treasury supporting all the mental health in Iowa. And then we at the Federal level, to make up for the fact that we don’t have enough psychiatrists, we are making greater use of telehealth mental health. And that’s a permanent part of the practice of medicine now.”  According to the National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI) one in six U.S. youth aged 6-17 experience a mental health disorder each year with 50% of all lifetime mental illnesses beginning by age 14, and 75% by age 24.