the push to keep children battling mental challenges from behind bars
Approximately 75 to 80 percent of all children and youth that need mental health services do not have access to them, according to a report from the National Juvenile Justice Network
We go to the National Juvenile Justice Network for this week's study, “Keep Children with Mental Health Challenges out of the Youth Legal System.”
70% of youth committed to adult prisons in New Jersey had a mental health disability prior to incarceration.
Around 40% of youth had two or more mental health diagnoses.
Approximately 31% of White children and youth receive mental health services.
Only 13% of children from diverse racial and ethnic backgrounds are estimated to receive mental health services.
Deadly disparities
From 1980 to 1995, the suicide rates for Black children aged 10 to 14 increased 233 percentage points compared to 120 percentage points for non-Hispanic White children.
In 2019, the rate of suicide attempts for Black girls in the 9th to 12th grades was 60 percent higher than non-Hispanic White girls in the same age group.
Hispanic girls’ suicide attempt rate was 30 percent higher than non-Hispanic White girl.
Asian American boys’ suicide attempt rate was 30 percent higher than non-Hispanic White boys.
For Indigenous youth, the suicide rate for youth aged 15-19 in 2019 was three times higher than for non-Hispanic White.
Providers
Only 6.2% of psychologists, 5.6% of advanced-practice psychiatric nurses, 12.6% of social workers, and 21.3% of psychiatrists are members of minority groups.
A 2016 report projected the supply of workers in selected behavioral health professions to be approximately 250,000 workers short of the demand projections by 2025.
Cost
An average cost for a patient battling severe depression can be over $10,000 a year.
Only 43 percent of psychiatrists accept Medicaid, compared to 73 percent of other medical providers.
As of 2018, 11.5 percent of Black Americans were uninsured compared to 7.5 percent of White Americans.
Hispanic, Indigenous, and Alaska Natives are 2 ½ times more likely than Whites to be uninsured.
Access
Nearly 80 percent of youth in need of mental health services do not receive services in their communities
The average national student-to-counselor ratio is 444:1
Students are 21 times more likely to seek mental health care at school-based health centers than at community mental health centers
Read the whole study here.
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