As an emergency physician, I have seen firsthand the devastating impact of untreated mental health conditions. For far too many young people, the first time they access mental health care is in a moment of crisis — often in the ER, when their symptoms have already escalated beyond what community care could have addressed.

Waiting for crises is simply not the way to approach mental health. We wouldn’t wait until a child is severely physically ill to treat an illness, so why are we doing this with mental health? As we marked World Mental Health Day on Oct. 10, we must take a serious look at how we address mental health in Pennsylvania, especially for our youth.

Our current mental health system is reactive. Children and young adults often don’t receive the help they need until they reach a breaking point. In the ER, I often meet young people in the middle of a mental health crisis who could have been supported with earlier intervention. By that time, their conditions are more severe, harder to treat and more costly — both financially and in terms of the toll it takes on them and their families. That’s why upstream, preventative interventions are essential. By providing early mental health support — through counseling, peer support and family services — we can prevent these crises from developing in the first place.

I recently visited UpStreet, a unique drop-in center in Pittsburgh supported by the Jewish Healthcare Foundation, with fellow state legislators. UpStreet offers a safe space where young people can seek help before their mental health challenges reach a crisis point. This preventative care is exactly the kind of approach we need to adopt on a broader scale, particularly through reforms to how we fund and deliver mental health services.

We need to move mental health services out of emergency rooms and into community settings like UpStreet, where young people can get the care they need. That’s where initiatives like Children First’s mental health campaign come in. They are pushing for reforms that will make services more accessible and responsive to the needs of children and families across Pennsylvania.

One critical reform is to ensure that mental health services for children are treated as a priority and covered under Medicaid without unnecessary barriers like diagnoses, pre-approvals or referrals. We also need to expand access to these services by increasing the diversity of settings where children can access mental health services and ensuring that children can access care that is culturally relevant and tailored to their needs.

As a doctor, I know that early, preventive care saves lives. It saves money, too. By investing in mental health services in schools, pediatric clinics and community spaces, there will be fewer emergency room visits and lives lost to suicide. Mental health care is health care, and it’s time we prioritize it as such. This World Mental Health Day, let’s commit to making mental health care for young people a priority, because every child deserves the opportunity to thrive — not just survive.

State Rep. Arvind Venkat represents the 30th Legislative District in Allegheny County.