News Mashup for October 2021
Annual Review of Mental Health in America
On October 19, 2021 Mental Health America released 2022 State of Mental Health in America, its annual report ranking the prevalence of mental health and substance use problems and access to care for both adults and youth across all 50 states and the District of Columbia. Now in its eighth year of publication, the MHA’s State of Mental Health in America series aims to: “provide a snapshot of mental health status among youth and adults for policy and program planning, analysis, and evaluation; track changes in prevalence of mental health issues and access to mental health care; understand how changes in national data reflect the impact of legislation and policies; and increase dialogue and improve outcomes for individuals and families with mental health needs.”
State rankings, which range from 1 (lowest prevalence of mental illness and highest access to care) to 51 (highest prevalence and lowest access), derive from occurrences of MDE, Substance Use Disorders, and Emotional Disturbance for an Individualized Education Program using 2018-2019 data from Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA), The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), and the Department of Education (DoE).
At the national level, two key findings for youth age 12-17 years are:
Youth mental health continues to worsen in the U.S. with 10.6% of youth (~ 2.5 M) having a severe major depressive episode (MDE). Relative to last year’s report, an additional 197,000 youth experienced severe MDE. The highest incidence is among youth who identify as multi-racial, at 14.5% (119,000 youth).
Access to care is a persistent problem in the U.S., with 60% of youth with MDE lacking any specialty mental health treatment whatsoever.
While recognizing that relative rankings must be viewed with caution because of differences in geography and demographics from state to state, the study ranked California 36th in the Nation for youth mental health, indicating a greater prevalence of illness and less access to care than that of some other large states with high-density urban centers such as Pennsylvania (1st), New York (9th), and Florida (30th). The study found that overall, 64.5% of California’s young people experiencing MDE did not receive specialty mental health services in 2018-2019 (a total of 278,000 untreated youth); of the 284,000 youth with severe MDE only 26% received some form of consistent treatment. Click on the link below to learn more.
Reinert, M, Fritze, D. & Nguyen, T. October 19, 2021. The state of mental health in America 2022. Mental Health America. Retrieved October 24, 2021 from https://mhanational.org/sites/default/files/2022%20State%20of%20Mental%20Health%20in%20America.pdf .
2021 Children’s Mental Health Report
On October 18 the Child Mind Institute issued a comprehensive report examining “the growing body of research on the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on children’s mental health, including the results of a survey of thousands of parents conducted by the Child Mind Institute.” The overarching result of the study is that the pandemic’s negative impacts hit hardest on those youth already challenged by poverty, racial inequities, pre-existing mental or physical disabilities or loss of a loved one. The authors emphasize that recovery will be uneven as well. “What is clear is that, while mental health resources and support can make a significant difference [to recovery], unequal impacts will remain as long as economic and racial inequality persists.” Click on the link below to learn more.
Kelsey Osgood, Hannah Sheldon-Dean, and Harry Kimball. October 18, 2021. 2021 Children’s mental health report: What we know about the COVID-19 pandemic’s impact on children’s mental health — and what we don’t know. Child Mind Institute. Retrieved October 15, 2021 from https://4ativ3gmvgg3r0ya51kt7gkw-wpengine.netdna-ssl.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/CMHR-2021-FINAL.pdf .
Nathaly Pesantez. October 28, 2021. Youth mental health impacted unevenly by pandemic. ADDitude. Retrieved October 28, 2021 from https://www.additudemag.com/pandemic-and-mental-health-unequal-impact-youth-report/ .
Children Mental Health Specialists Declare National Emergency
On October 19, 2021 the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP), American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry (AACAP) and Children’s Hospital Association (CHA) jointly declared a “National Emergency in Child and Adolescent Mental Health.” The coalition urges decisionmakers and child advocates to respond with policy, programs, and funding to address the “worsening crisis in child and adolescent mental health [that] is inextricably tied to the stress brought on by COVID-19 and the ongoing struggle for racial justice and [which] represents an acceleration of trends observed prior to 2020.” The declaration calls for swift action to:
Expand telehealth, community and school-based services, and trauma-informed care,
Integrate mental health and primary care pediatrics,
Increase the number of short-stay stabilization units and step-down programs,
Address longstanding workforce shortages, and
Effectuate mental health parity laws.
The timing of the AAP-AACAP-CHA emergency declaration coincides with briefings issued by the White House and the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services outlining the administration’s efforts to promote behavioral health for children and adolescents. Click on the links below to learn more.
American Academy of Pediatrics. October 19, 2021. AAP-AACAP-CHA Declaration of a national emergency in child and adolescent mental health. Retrieved October 24, 2021 from https://www.aappublications.org/news/2021/10/19/children-mental-health-national-emergency-101921 .
FACT SHEET: Improving access and care for youth mental health and substance use conditions. The White House. October 19, 2021. https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/statements-releases/2021/10/19/fact-sheet-improving-access-and-care-for-youth-mental-health-and-substance-use-conditions/ .
FACT SHEET: Efforts across HHS to promote behavioral health for children and youth. October 8, 2021. U.S. Dept. of Health and Human Services. October 8, 2021. https://www.hhs.gov/about/news/2021/10/08/fact-sheet-efforts-across-hhs-promote-behavioral-health-for-children-and-youth.html .
Isabella Grullón Paz. October 20, 2021. Pediatricians and psychiatrists declare a national emergency in youth mental health. The New York Times. Retrieved October 24, 2021 from https://www.nytimes.com/live/2021/10/20/world/covid-vaccine-boosters/covid-pandemic-children-mental-health .
Robert Preidt. October 19, 2021. U.S. Pediatricians, Psychiatrists Declare 'Emergency' in Child Mental Health. U.S. News and World Report. Retrieved October 24, 2021 from https://www.usnews.com/news/health-news/articles/2021-10-19/us-pediatricians-psychiatrists-declare-emergency-in-child-mental-health .
Marcia Frellick. October 21, 2021. Pediatric orgs declare national emergency in mental health. Medscape. Retrieved October 24, 2021 from https://www.medscape.com/viewarticle/961325 .
Chronic Physical Ailments Exacts Toll on Adolescent Mental Health
The California Health Report (CHR) published an article this month highlighting the efforts of one of the state’s only mental health programs specifically designed to help youth regain and maintain emotional health while coping with chronic physical ailments such as cancer, diabetes, epilepsy, asthma, or cystic fibrosis. The program, known as MEND (an acronym for Mastering Each New Direction), operates in collaboration with the Loma Linda University Behavioral Health Center in Redlands.
The underpinnings of MEND’s mission aligns with new research published by Dr. Ann Marie Brady and colleagues in the journal Development and Psychopathology. Their work indicates that chronic physical illness can disrupt the usual course of social and emotional development in early adolescence; specifically, “Children with chronic health problems presented with a disproportionate rate of psychiatric illness at 10 years, and these chronic health problems continued to be associated with poor mental health outcomes at 13 years and 15 years.”
In practice, “We can’t continue to treat people as if their physical health is over here, and their mental health is over here,” MEND Director Dr. Brian Distelberg says in an interview with CHR. “We need to bring those together.” Presently, MEND staff members are helping other providers to develop similar centers elsewhere in California. Click on the links below to learn more.
Claudia Boyd-Barrett. October 7, 2021. Striving to meet the mental health needs of children with physical health conditions. Cal Health Report. Retrieved October 19, 2021 from https://www.calhealthreport.org/2021/10/07/striving-to-meet-the-mental-health-needs-of-children-with-physical-health-conditions/ .
Brady, A., Deighton, J., & Stansfeld, S. (2021). Chronic illness in childhood and early adolescence: A longitudinal exploration of co-occurring mental illness. Development and Psychopathology, 33(3), 885-898. doi:10.1017/S0954579420000206. Retrieved October 19, 2021 from https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/development-and-psychopathology/article/chronic-illness-in-childhood-and-early-adolescence-a-longitudinal-exploration-of-cooccurring-mental-illness/AA64207C6B56EF462A92527624DFECE9 .
Fresno’s Child Welfare System in Crisis
This October, investigative reporter Yesenia Amaro published a series of articles in The Fresno Bee illuminating “inhumane conditions” in which youth under the care of Fresno County are being housed in the offices of Child Welfare Services (CWS) while they await placements in foster homes or short-term residential therapeutic programs (STRTP). “They can be there for a couple of hours to a couple of weeks” social workers from Fresno County Child Protective Services (CPS) told The Bee. “Children get fed fast food, share one restroom, and sometimes may not get any showers.” Hardest hit are high-needs youth who require STRTP, or other hard-to-find placements.
CPS social workers from the SEIU 521 labor union raised concerns back in June and again in August saying that the system was woefully understaffed, plagued with high turnover, and ill-equipped to care for youth on site. In-office housing of youth at CWS has gone on for years, they say, and it is getting worse because recent legislative and regulatory actions have reduced placement options without supporting alternatives.
Concurrent with The Bee’s reporting, Fresno’s 23rd district Assemblymember, Jim Patterson, sent an urgent letter to the Directors of Health and Human Services, Social Services, and Health Care Services asking that immediate action be taken “to work with Fresno County leaders to ensure that they have the resources and flexibility needed to ensure these children don’t spend another night on the floor of county offices.”
According to The Bee, Fresno County has other problems as well: “Currently, there are nearly 60 county dependents on runaway status. Some of them have walked out of the CWS Office.” Lorraine Ramirez, a long-serving social worker for the county told The Bee “We can’t stop them from leaving the building, and that’s another issue that we have…We’ll attempt to look around the local area, and then if we can’t find them, we contact the law enforcement.”
On October 14, Sonja Dosti, a spokeswoman for Fresno County told The Bee that a stop-gap facility is being readied to house youth at the vacant University Medical Center (UMC), which closed its doors 15 years ago. Dosti says that the facility is stocked with “bedding, staff, a food service and an onsite pantry.” During the interview Dosti acknowledged that the UMC site is unlikely to meet state licensing requirements. At a news conference organized by CPS social workers, County Administrative Officer, Jean Rousseau, confirmed that UMC is “not licensed by the state, but we have no choice. We have no place to take these young folks.” Click on the links below to learn more.
Yesenia Amaro. October 13, 2021. ‘Inhumane’ conditions: Children under Fresno County custody living in office space. The Fresno Bee. Retrieved October 23, 2021 from https://www.fresnobee.com/news/local/article254960262.html .
Assemblymember Jim Patterson, 23rd District. Letter to CHHSA Secretary Mark Ghaly, CDSS Director Kim Johnson, DHCS Director Michelle Baass. 13. Oct. 2021. TS. Retrieved October 23, 2021 from https://ad23.asmrc.org/sites/default/files/files-uploaded/Letter%20to%20State%20Agencies%20Re%20Foster%20Youth%20Final.pdf .
Yesenia Amaro. October 14, 2021. Assemblyman urges state to work with Fresno County to address children’s living conditions. The Fresno Bee. Retrieved October 23, 2021 from https://www.fresnobee.com/news/local/article254981162.html .
Thaddeus Miller and Yesenia Amaro. October 14, 2021. Social workers demand solutions for horrific conditions for kids in Fresno County CPS care. The Fresno Bee. Retrieved October 30, 2021 from https://www.fresnobee.com/news/local/article254987752.html .
Yesenia Amaro. October 16, 2021. More trouble for Fresno County CPS: Nearly 60 children in custody on runaway status. The Fresno Bee. Retrieved October 30, 2021 from https://www.fresnobee.com/news/local/article255040607.html .
Yesenia Amaro. October 27, 2021. State: Fresno County could face penalties for housing children in unlicensed facilities. The Fresno Bee. Retrieved October 30, 2021 from https://www.fresnobee.com/news/local/article255217516.html .
Brianna Calix. November 3, 2021. ‘Helluva journey.’ Will City of Fresno buy troubled University Medical Center campus? The Fresno Bee. Retrieved November 4, 2021 from https://www.fresnobee.com/news/politics-government/article255479101.html .
More Stories in October: New state law puts California’s Juvenile Justice System at a crossroads: Quick guide EdSource — 10.11.2021; Colorado begins to reckon with racial bias in child welfare, where Black kids are way overrepresented Colorado Sun — 10.19.2021; Audit of Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Relief Fund (ESSER) and Governor’s Emergency Education Relief Fund (GEER) California State Auditor — 10.19.2021; California’s mental health crisis: What went wrong? And can we fix it? California Healthline — 10.19.2021; Framework for Solutions: Children’s mental and behavioral health systems California Children’s Trust — 10.19.2021; Baltimore school-issued laptops monitored for safety and mental health reasons, officials say Washington Post — 10.24.2021; Should kids take mental health days? Child Mind Institute — 10.25.2021; Colorado launches website to connect kids to free mental health sessions The Colorado Sun — 10.28.2021; Peer leaders making a difference in mental health Forbes — 10.26.2021; School-based health centers and pediatric practice Pediatrics — 10.1.2021; Statewide initiative available to all public middle and high schools in California to assist in addressing student mental health needs that have increased during COVID California Dept. of Education — 10.7.2021; Addressing barriers to behavioral health coverage for low-income youth NHeLP — 10.1.2021; Newsom signs bill creating mental health protocol for schools EdSource — 10.8.2021; Anticipating an increase in student misbehavior, California releases new discipline guidelines EdSource — 10.1.2021; Nearly half of money for high-needs students not getting to their schools, analysis finds EdSource — 10.14.2021; Targeted K–12 funding and student outcomes Public Policy Institute of California — 10.1.2021.
