"Hillary’s plan will integrate our mental and physical health care systems," the Democratic nominee's campaign says. | Getty Clinton unveils mental health agenda

Hillary Clinton on Monday released a sweeping agenda to deal with the mental health problem in the United States, including a call to convene a White House conference on the issue during her first year in office.

"Recognizing that nearly a fifth of all adults in the United States — more than 40 million people — are coping with a mental health problem, Hillary’s plan will integrate our mental and physical health care systems," the Democratic nominee's campaign said in a statement. "Her goal is that within her time in office, Americans will no longer separate mental health from physical health when it comes to access to care or quality of treatment. Hillary has been talking about mental health policy throughout her campaign, since hearing directly from American parents, students, veterans, nurses, and police officers about how these challenges keep them up at night."


Clinton's plan encompasses the integration of mental and physical health care systems, including an expansion of reimbursement structures in Medicare and Medicaid, tasking the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Innovation to create and implement the new payment models. Suicide prevention is also a major focus of the plan, with Clinton's campaign saying she would assign all relevant federal agencies to create a cross-government initiative overseen by the surgeon general. Clinton previously announced her plan to increase funding for community health centers last month, an idea favored by primary rival Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders.

The former New York senator's campaign said she would ensure enforcement of mental health parity, noting her sponsorship of the Mental Health Parity and Addiction Equity Act of 2008 and subsequent Affordable Care Act.

"As part of her commitment to fully enforcing the mental health parity law, Hillary will launch randomized audits to detect parity violations, and increase federal enforcement," the campaign said. "She will also enforce disclosure requirements so that insurers cannot conceal their practices for denying mental health care and strengthen federal monitoring of health insurer compliance with network adequacy requirements."

The proposal would also seek to provide training to law enforcement officers on how to deal with people with mental health issues, as well as launching a joint initiative between the departments of Housing and Urban Development and Health and Human Services to increase community-based housing.

Clinton would also "significantly increase" brain and behavioral science research as president, including new funding for the National Institutes of Health and integrate ongoing cross-agency research portfolios on issues like PTSD between departments.