50% of US children with mental health problems remain untreated, study says
Half of the children in the United States who suffer from some type of mental disorder do not receive treatment, a recently published study revealed. The researchers analyzed data collected from the 2016 National Survey of Children’s Health, a national survey administered to parents of young adolescents.
The findings revealed that of the 46.6 million youth in the 6-18 age group whose parents completed the survey, around 7.7 million teens suffered from at least one type of mental health problem such as anxiety, depression or attention deficit. /hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). Also, one year before this survey was conducted, only half of these children were receiving counseling or some type of treatment offered by a mental health provider.
The survey further showed that the percentage of adolescent youth diagnosed with a mental health disorder and not receiving any treatment from a provider ranged widely from 72.2 percent in North Carolina to 29.5 percent in the District of Columbia. The findings appear in JAMA Pediatrics in February 2019.
What do child and adolescent psychiatrists have to say?
Co-author Mark Peterson, an associate professor at the University of Michigan (Medicine) said he reflected on conditions that affect children at an early age holistically. But he was surprised to see such a high percentage of young adolescents not receiving mental health treatment in the US.
However, child psychiatrists didn’t seem overly surprised by the results. Dr. Barbara Robles-Ramamurthy, a child and adolescent psychiatrist at the University of Texas Health Science Center (UT) Long School of Medicine in San Antonio, said this was unfortunately nothing new to her. . In fact, she was well versed in the fact that the percentage of young mentally ill adolescents who remained without treatment in the US was quite high.
Explaining further, Dr. Jennifer Mautone, a consultant psychiatrist in the Department of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences at Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, said families and children with mental illness face a number of challenges when it comes to accessing to mental health. treatment services, thus contributing to the high rates of non-treatment.
Extreme shortage of mental health providers
The American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry (AACAP) revealed that the United States faced an extreme shortage of practicing child and adolescent psychiatrists. According to available data, there were fewer than 17 health care providers for every 100,000 adolescents.
This indicates that many families needed to wait a long time for treatment, which deteriorated the primary mental health condition of the affected child. In addition, available qualified providers faced significant challenges in interacting with other existing systems responsible for the care of these children. Some of these systems included the health, education, child care, and adolescent justice systems. All of these systems were supposed to take care of the child, but none of them interacted with each other, resulting in half-hearted care.
a ray of hope
Many pediatric health systems have begun to integrate mental health services into their practice, to promote timely intervention of mental health services for children. Even mental health providers, by integrating with pediatricians, tap into the already prevalent trust factor of patients and are able to reach out to families in a familiar setting. One such program was the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia’s Healthy Minds, Healthy Kids initiative, led by Dr. Mautone.
In the last two years, this initiative managed to serve more than 2,500 patients. Robles-Ramamurthy, considered this a positive development. However, there is much more to achieve, she feels. Many families still view the presence of mental illness in their family as a personal failure and are afraid to approach it for fear of the associated stigma. The work to destigmatize mental illness really began only a decade ago. Another hurdle parents face is insurance coverage. Some of the teens are covered, while others are not adequately covered.
Adolescent Mental Health Treatment at ADEONA Healthcare
Mental illnesses, when left untreated in young adolescents, pose serious threats to the community, including unemployment, poor performance in school and life in general, and high rates of suicide. At ADEONA Healthcare of Rancho San Diego, adolescents ages 12-17 receive comprehensive behavioral treatment programs for mental disorders and related problems. The facility offers a combination of individual and group therapies crucial to successful treatment and recovery from mental disorders.