Nurse Leader and Healthcare Policy March 2020 Identify a socially visible healthcare issue that you would like to see developed into a healthcare policy. It can be an issue that you are aware of through the course textbook, literature, peers, or through experiences with other healthcare systems. What change strategy could be developed to present to leaders within your healthcare organization? Applied Change Implementation Mental health conditions are not absent among children and teens. According to the National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI), “1 in 5 live with a mental health condition—half develop the condition by age 14 and three quarters by age 24” (n.d.). The current health care system does not meet the needs of children and teens with mental health disorders due to a lack of pediatric mental health providers. There are serious shortages of pediatric subspecialists and child mental health providers in our school systems. These specialists provide essential services to children and adolescents with special mental and physical health care needs. These shortages lead to decreased utilization of needed treatment, long wait times, and long distances traveled to care. If child mental health providers were placed in schools they can act as a liaison between students, guardians, teachers, and external mental health resources. The healthcare policy priority I’m advocating for is the presence of school-based child psychologists, social workers, and counselors at public schools to both provide initial treatment for students who experience mental illnesses and act as a liaison between students, guardians, teachers, and external mental health resources. The Student Support Act of 2015 (H.R. 2375) was introduced in the 114th Congress by Congresswoman Barbara Lee on May 15, 2015. The bill was referred to the Subcommittee on Early Childhood, Elementary, and Secondary Education but was not enacted (Civic Impulse, n.d.). On December 1, 2017, I meet