News Mashup for December 2022
SF FOSTER YOUTH FAR FROM FAMILY AND FRIENDS
For the last decade, San Francisco placed the majority of its foster youth in homes outside county borders. This month, for example, an investigation published in The San Francisco Standard used data from the UC Berkeley California Child Welfare Indicators Project to show that San Francisco’s Human Services Agency (HSA) placed 65% of its foster youth in out-of-county homes in July 2022—that’s more out-of-county placements than any other California county and twice the national monthly average. It’s a troubling trend that has steadily increased in San Francisco over the last decade, despite an overall decline in the number of foster youth in the HSA system.
In an interview with The San Francisco Standard, Director Erika Dirkse of the San Francisco Court Appointed Special Advocates said that out-of-county placement “isn’t necessarily a bad thing if a kid ends up with a relative or family friend,” but as the UC Berkeley data show, up to two-thirds of these youth are being sent to caregivers they are meeting for the first time. In 2021, for example, of the one hundred San Francisco foster youth that were placed out-of-county, seventy-four ended up with people unknown to them in counties as far away as Humboldt and San Diego. New people, new community, new school makes for a tough transition.
According to HSA, San Francisco “simply has more foster kids than families to take them.” The investigation by The San Francisco Standard reveals that a foster parent recruitment drive launched by HSA in 2020 had limited success, ginning up only half the target number of caregivers.
Providing a national perspective, new research published in Health Affairs this month shows that the number of youths needing foster care is proportionately lower in states where Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) programs are the least restrictive. States receive federal funding through TANF grants to “provide assistance to needy families so that children may be cared for in their own homes or in the homes of relatives.” But states have wide discretion on the eligibility, amount, and duration of TANF benefits.
Analyzing the scope of TANF restrictions in all 50 states in tandem with 2004-2016 data from the National Child Abuse and Neglect Data System and Adoption and Foster Care Analysis and Reporting System led the authors of the Health Affairs study to conclude that “Easing TANF restrictions may have resulted in 29,112 fewer children entering foster care during the study period.”
Click on the links below to learn more.
Noah Baustin. December 5, 2022. ‘Like a piece of luggage’: SF sends away more foster kids than any county in California. The San Francisco Standard. Retrieved December 11, 2022 from https://sfstandard.com/public-health/san-francisco-foster-child-program-sends-kids-around-california/.
Donna K. Ginther and Michelle Johnson-Motoyama. December 5, 2022. Associations between state TANF policies, child protective services involvement, and foster care placement. Health Affairs. Retrieved December 16, 2022 from https://www.healthaffairs.org/doi/full/10.1377/hlthaff.2022.00743.
Jeff Grabmeier. December 5, 2022. Some state welfare policies linked to more foster care. Ohio State News. Retrieved December 16, 2022 from https://news.osu.edu/some-state-welfare-policies-linked-to-more-foster-care/.
Alexandra Walsh, Mary Moynihan, and Elizabeth Yin. December 10, 2022. Is the foster care system worth fostering? The Regulatory Review. Retrieved December 16, 2022 from https://www.theregreview.org/2022/12/10/saturday-seminar-is-the-foster-care-system-worth-fostering/.
LGBTQ YOUTH ARE STRUGGLING DISPROPORTIONATELY
This month, the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) published a population-based, cross-sectional study of over 70,000 teens showing that LGBTQ youth in juvenile correctional facilities are disproportionately suffering from poor mental health. The authors of the study examined mental health indicators among LGBTQ and non-LGBTQ teens (median age ~ 15 yrs) in public schools and in correctional facilities. About 28% of incarcerated teens self-identified as LGBTQ. The percentage identifying as LGBTQ in public schools was just over 20%. Compared to the non-LGBTQ groups, incarcerated LGBTQ youth had the highest incidence of suicidal ideations (42%), suicide attempts (37%), and self-harming (57%). In a December interview with Education Week, Dr. Ilan Meyer, a co-author of the AAP study, expressed concern that recent anti-LGBTQ legislation is making it worse by condoning prejudice that ultimately leads to higher incidence of violence, bullying, and isolation in the facilities.
On the heels of the above study, GLSEN released its biennial National School Climate Survey examining the experiences of more than 22,000 LGBTQ+ students during the 2020-2021 academic year. The survey found that 60% had experienced LGBTQ+ discriminatory policies or practices, and over 80% reported feeling unsafe on school grounds. Safety concerns and feelings of discomfort caused LGBTQ+ students to avoid bathrooms, locker rooms, and gym classes. They avoided school functions and extracurricular activities. Many of those surveyed say they were physically harassed (30%) or viciously assaulted (12%). According to the survey, most students do not report such incidents to school officials, but when they do, they find little or no support.
The results of National School Climate Survey also demonstrate the strong benefit of anti-bullying/harassment policies that specifically affirm the rights of LGBTQ+ students. The researchers remind us, however, that:
“To date, there is no federal legislation that has explicitly established protections from discrimination in schools based on sexual orientation and gender identity. Although Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972 (Title IX) prohibits discrimination based on sex in federally funded schools, federal administrative policy has been inconsistent in communicating that discrimination based on sex includes discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity.”
Click on the links to learn more.
Kirsty A. Clark, Tyler D. Harvey, Jaclyn M.W. Hughto, and Ilan H. Meyer. 2022. Mental health among sexual and gender minority youth incarcerated in juvenile correction. Pediatrics. Retrieved December 11, 2022 from https://publications.aap.org/pediatrics/article-abstract/150/6/e2022058158/190072/Mental-Health-Among-Sexual-and-Gender-Minority.
Eesha Pendharkar. December 2, 2022. Incarcerated LGBTQ youth are struggling: Here’s how bad it is. Education Week. Retrieved December 11, 2022 from https://www.edweek.org/leadership/incarcerated-lgbtq-youth-are-struggling-heres-how-bad-it-is/2022/12.
Joseph G. Kosciw, Caitlin M. Clark, and Leesh Menard. December 2022. The 2021 National School Climate Survey: The experiences of LGBTQ+ youth in our nation’s schools. GLSEN. Retrieved December 11, 2022 from https://www.glsen.org/sites/default/files/2022-10/NSCS-2021-Full-Report.pdf.
Helen Santoro. December 9, 2022. Gender-affirming care tied to improved mental health. Discover. Retrieved December 16, 2022 from https://discovermagazine.com/health/gender-affirming-care-tied-to-improved-mental-health.
Richard Mendel. December 8, 2022. Why youth incarceration fails: An updated review of the evidence. The Sentencing Project. Retrieved December 16, 2022 from https://www.sentencingproject.org/reports/why-youth-incarceration-fails-an-updated-review-of-the-evidence/.
National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. December 2022. Innovative data science approaches to identify individuals, populations, and communities at high risk for suicide: Proceedings of a workshop. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. Retrieved December 21, 2022 from https://doi.org/10.17226/26752.
Children’s Mental Health Crisis: Scope, Sources, Remedies
This month, researchers from the USC-Brookings Schaeffer Initiative for Health Policy, published a white paper evaluating the scope and potential sources of the current children’s mental health crisis. The report emphasizes that the rising rate of poor mental health in youth pre-dates the COVID-19 pandemic—it’s a crisis at least 10 years in the making. And although the authors stress that the forces driving the crisis are complex and intertwined, they point out that while many risk factors have actually declined or remained steady over the past decade (exposure to abuse, neglect, and bullying; prevalence of caregiver mental health disorders or substance use; poverty rates), other risk factors have become worse—youths have more exposure to gun violence and homicide, devote more time to social media, and spend fewer hours with parents or other supportive adults.
To reverse the national trend, the authors call for enhancing federal policies that expand access to prevention, screening, treatment, and referral services within schools, with specific provisions:
targeting grant resources to low-income schools,
leveraging Medicaid in coordination with grant funding to advance sustainably financed school services,
integrating behavioral health into pediatric settings, and
strengthening behavioral health screening and treatment under Medicaid’s Early and Periodic Screening Diagnostic and Treatment (EPSDT) program.
Click on the links below to learn more.
Richard G. Frank and Vikki Wachino. December 12, 2022. Meeting the moment on children’s mental health: Recommendations for federal policy. Brooking. Retrieved December 20, 2022 from https://www.brookings.edu/research/meeting-the-moment-on-childrens-mental-health-recommendations-for-federal-policy/.
Brian Owens. December 19, 2022. The push to improve children’s health. Nature. Retrieved December 23, 2022 from https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-022-04339-3.
Donna St. George and Valerie Strauss. December 5, 2022. The crisis of student mental health is much vaster than we realize. The Washington Post. Retrieved December 5, 2022 from https://www.washingtonpost.com/education/2022/12/05/crisis-student-mental-health-is-much-vaster-than-we-realize/.
More Stories in December: Youths have strong opinions on language about body weight MedScape — 12.01.2022; Autism treatment shifts away from ‘fixing’ the condition Scientific American — 12.01.2022; No wrong door NHS Confederation — 12.02.2022; Fixing foster care wouldn't actually be that hard — or that expensive Salon 12.04.2022; Ensuring coverage of behavioral health emergency services The Kennedy Forum — 12.06.2022; 50% Of Gen Z Cite This Health Improvement As A Top New Year’s Resolution For 2023 Forbes Health — 12.06.2022; Many kids are struggling: Is special education the answer? AP News — 12.06.2022; For Black Families in Phoenix, Child Welfare Investigations Are a Constant Threat ProPublica — 12.08.2022; Why is California fighting adverse childhood experiences with more trauma? CalMatters — 12.09.2022; Teenagers in The Times: Fall 2022 The New York Times —12.12.2022; Suicide Prevention in Indigenous Communities The National Academies Press — 12.15.2022; ‘Disruptive,’ or Depressed? Psychiatrists Reach Out to Teens of Color The New York Times — 12.18.2022; Caught in WA's youth mental health 'disaster,' a teen with nowhere to go Seattle Times — 12.18.2022; Do protocols for school safety infringe on disability rights? The Hechinger Report — 12.28.2022; In child welfare cases, most of your constitutional rights don’t apply ProPublica — 12.29.2022; 2022 in review: The year in pediatric mental health Healio — 12.29.2022; I edited mental illness out of my college applications: I’m not alone The New York Times — 12.31.2022.
