News Mashup for November 2022
Specialty Mental Health Services Hamstrung in California Counties with Highest Proportion of Medi-Cal Eligible Youth
This month, Young Minds Advocacy released new research showing that funding allocations dating back to at least 2011 Realignment have constrained public Specialty Mental Health Services (SMHS) in California counties that received proportionately less state funding relative to their share of Medi-Cal eligible youth.
California funds its children’s SMHS program primarily with dedicated state sales tax and vehicle licensing fees, and federal Medicaid matching funds. Allocations among counties are determined by the Departments of Finance and Health Care Services, largely on the basis of prior county mental health spending patterns.
The new study uses annual data from a) the State Controller’s Office (SCO Realignment and appropriations reports); b) the DHCS Performance Outcome System (POS); and c) DHCS Cost Summary Reports for State Fiscal Years (FY) 2012-13 through 2019-20.
YMA’s analysis shows that sixteen medium- to large-sized counties, serving more than a third of California’s youth in total, missed out on an estimated $3 billion in mental health funds and failed to serve about one-half million eligible youths since FY 2012-13. In FY 2019-20 alone, at least 46,000 youths failed to receive any SMHS due to disproportionate 2011 Realignment funding.
Click on the link below to learn more.
Gardner, P. (November 2022). Disproportionate funding denies specialty mental health care to hundreds of thousands of California youths. Young Minds Advocacy. Read/Download .
SAMHSA and NASMHPD Release Guidelines for Children’s Behavioral Health Crisis Care
This November, the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) and the National Association of State Mental Health Program Directors released reports providing conceptual frameworks for child and youth behavioral health crisis care.
It is emphasized in both reports that successful crisis care hinges on having:
Someone to contact (single point of access 988 crisis call line),
Someone to respond (mobile response teams that are responsive to diverse a population), and
A safe place to be (home- and community-based stabilization services as well as inpatient care).
Both reports maintain that retrofitting an adult crisis response system to serve the needs of youth is not a winning solution, and stress that crisis services are only one element in a robust continuum of care system.
Click on the links to learn more.
Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration. National guidelines for child and youth behavioral health crisis care. November 2022. Publication No. PEP22-01-02-001 Rockville, MD: Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration. Retrieved November 18, 2022 from https://store.samhsa.gov/sites/default/files/SAMHSA_Digital_Download/pep-22-01-02-001.pdf .
Melissa A. Schober, Deborah S. Harburger, Denise Sulzbach, and Michelle Zabel. September 2022. A safe place to be: Crisis Stabilization Services and other supports for children and youth. National Association of State Mental Health Program Directors. Retrieved November 18, 2022 from https://store.samhsa.gov/sites/default/files/SAMHSA_Digital_Download/nasmhpd-a-safe-place-to-be.pdf .
Impact of Juvenile Justice Involvement on Youth Health and Well-Being
This month, the National Academy of Sciences released the proceedings of a 2019 workshop examining the impact of juvenile justice involvement on the lives of youth and their families. The workshop included presentations by judges, attorneys, professors, advocates, and clinicians. The first part of the workshop summarized long-standing problems, including
The racial and ethnic inequities exacerbated by involvement in the juvenile justice system,
The high rates of violence, abuse, and suicide in juvenile justice facilities, and
The lack of adequate health care, mental health services, and educational support.
Later sessions discussed alternatives to court involvement and confinement; collaborations between the courts and behavioral health care systems; early intervention and screenings; and extensions of Medicaid coverage to families and children in detention.
Click on the links below to learn more.
National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. November 2022. The impact of juvenile justice system involvement on the health and well-being of youth, families, and communities of color: Proceedings of a Workshop. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. https://doi.org/10.17226/26623 .
Aileen Delgado, Courtney Curtis, Rick Hampson and Michelle Mairena. November 8, 2022. Screening early for trauma, learning disabilities could slow school-to-prison pipeline, researchers say. MindSite News. Retrieved November 18, 2022 from https://mindsitenews.org/2022/11/08/screening-early-for-learning-disabilities-could-slow-school-to-prison-pipeline-researchers-say/ .
More Stories in November: The impact of sexual violence in mid-adolescence on mental health: a UK population-based longitudinal study The Lancet — 11.01.2022; Managing high school stress U.S. News & World Report — 11.01.2022; How to help young kids: Give their parents cash The Hechinger Report — 11.02.2022; California providers can’t keep up with mental health parity law Bloomberg Law — 11.02.2022; Lack of access to evidence-based mental health care poses grave threat AMA — 11.03.2022; State board approves county assistance network for community schools EdSource — 11.03.2022; Students call on State Board of Education to address safety, equity and mental health Ed Source — 11.02.2022; The value of adult relationships in preventing youth suicide attempts Open Access Government — 11.08.2022; College mental health centers are swamped. Here’s what parents can do The Washington Post — 11.08.2022; Governors and states meet to talk prevention and resilience in youth mental health National Governors Association — 11.08.2022; An Oklahoma home is filling a major gap in child mental health services MindSite News — 11.09.2022; As teen loneliness rates soar, schools may be making it worse, scientists say Newsweek — 11.11.2022; ‘What if Yale finds out?’ The Washington Post — 11.11.2022; ‘I Feel Invisible’ Newsweek — 11.12.2022; Study finds ‘huge’ increase in children going to the emergency room with suicidal thoughts CNN Health — 11.12.2022; HHS awards more than $100 million in funds to improve mental health crisis services National Association of Counties — 11.14.2022; Study finds significant inequities in school-based mental health services in rural areas News-Medical AZO Network — 11.15.2022; Most girls in the juvenile system experience abuse prior to incarceration. Their stories of abuse don’t end there Ms. — 11.16.2022; California youth have a mental health crisis. The best people to solve it? Themselves San Francisco Chronicle — 11.20.2022; Association of youth suicides and county-level mental health professional shortage areas in the US JAMA Pediatrics — 11.21.2022; Development of subjective well-being and its relationship with self-esteem in early adolescence British Journal of Developmental Psychology — 11.22.2022; States opting out of a federal program that tracks teen behavior as youth mental health worsens The Good Men Project — 11.28.2022.
