In a recent JAMA article,
2008 National Survey of Mental Health Treatment Facilities
data of psychiatric hospitals, residential treatment centers and freestanding outpatient clinics or partial-care and multiservice mental health groups found that only 63 percent of U.S. counties have at least one mental health facility that provides outpatient treatment for youth.
Less than half of U.S. counties have a mental health facility with special programs for youth with severe emotional disturbance. The gaps in infrastructure are even larger in rural communities, where less than half even have one mental health facility that provides outpatient care and only one-third has outpatient facilities with specific programs for youth with severe illness.
These mental health facilities that provide outpatient specialty services for youth are a critical element of the mental health care infrastructure, especially given the recent tragedy in Newtown Connecticut, where a disturbed young adult shot dozens of people.
In the Viewpoint article, Janet Cummings, PhD, assistant professor of health policy and management at Emory's Rollins School of Public Health, suggests that current estimates of the infrastructure gaps could be worse than the estimates from the 2008 survey due to ongoing budget cuts. Between 2009 and 2012, states eliminated more than $1.6 billion in general funds from their state mental health agency budgets, which adversely affected services and programs for both youth and adults with serious mental illness.
"The recent attention to mental health care access has ignited a more critical examination of the mental health treatment system for youth," explains Cummings. "These gaps in geographic access to mental health facilities are compounded by other problems such as provider shortages and stigma, which will ultimately require a comprehensive strategy from policymakers to yield meaningful improvements for this system."
Citation: Janet R. Cummings, PhD, Hefei Wen, BA, Benjamin G. Druss, MD, MPH, 'Improving Access to Mental Health Services for Youth in the United States', JAMA. 2013;309(6):553-554. doi:10.1001/jama.2013.437
