One in five children between 13 and 18 years old have or will have a serious mental illness
in their lifetime. 

- NIMH AND NAMI

Our current mental health care system

Recently mental health public policies have been shifting to improve access to care. However, even with recent gains, there is a lack of education and understanding about what mental illness is and how to treat it.

There is evidence indicating that most mental illnesses originate in childhood, however many youth remain undiagnosed or inadequately treated until much later in life. There are solid, evidence-based treatments to alleviate the suffering associated with mental illness, yet there are many obstacles to getting the available services to the children who need them the most.

Stigma against mental illness still exists. This bias manifests itself in many ways – from lack of available care, over-prescribing of medications, and discrimination in funding research and clinical supports for individuals with mental illness. For example, three times as many youth die from suicide as from cancer, and suicide is now the second leading cause of death in people ages 15-24 years old. Yet funding for research and treatment on pediatric physical illnesses continues to exceed that for mental illness. While life-threatening illness in a child is traumatic for families, death from suicide or homicide due to mental illness is just as tragic. 

There is an overwhelming shortage of youth-focused mental health services. As such, navigating the mental health system can be a frustrating, confusing process for parents. When parents contact their pediatricians to get help for their children, they are typically advised to consult with insurance companies for referrals to a psychiatrist. A majority of these psychiatrists are often unavailable to take on new clients. If they are, these providers are often limited by current systemic constraints of large, private medical organizations and the county mental health system. Many psychiatrists are pushed into situations in which they are only able to prescribe medications and are unable to integrate evidence-based practices, such as psychotherapy, family interventions, and educational support. There is clear evidence for most mental health diagnoses that psychotherapy is the better treatment modality than treatment with medication alone. Additionally, the evidence clearly supports the involvement of parents and caregivers in treatment, rather than the youth client alone. 

Due to these issues, psychiatrists typically need to refer families back to their medical organization or insurance company to find a different clinician to provide therapy. This creates an additional burden for coordination of care between providers. In the midst of this inefficiency, youth continue to struggle with behavioral or psychological difficulties. This ultimately may lead to several negative outcomes, including parental stress, deterioration of caregiver relationships, additional stress on siblings and the family system, repeated trips to the emergency room, psychiatric hospitalizations, over-prescription of medication, and, potentially, youth suicide. 

Most mental health providers want to do the right thing for children and families, but are not given the degrees of freedom to provide care in a way that is empirically supported. The result is that children and families receive sub-standard treatment for months to years, with limited improvement in functioning. Families, insurance companies, and county mental health systems invest countless dollars and time with minimal returns. Clinicians may begin to feel burned out, and both providers and consumers of mental health become frustrated with our existing system.

How we’re trying to fix things

We are working to bridge the gap between recent scientific advances in the understanding of the brain and clinical interventions and practically apply this knowledge to directly improve the lives of our patients and shift policy.  We are striving to provide both clinical expertise and education in order to create a system that addresses the actual needs of the community, in particular the children. Our investment in children's health and well-being is an investment in the future of the world.