(The Center Square) – Behavioral health services for children, particularly the gaps and disparities, could become clearer with avenues to help in a new dashboard initiative by North Carolina’s Health Department.
Suicide is the No. 2 cause of death for youth ages 10-18, and the state is No. 42 in highest prevalence and lowest access to mental health services for youth.
“Improving youth mental health in North Carolina must be a priority for all of us and we’re measuring what matters,” Secretary Kody Kinsley of the Health Department said in a release. “Comprehensive data allows us to track progress and hold ourselves and each other accountable as we work to transform behavioral health in North Carolina.”
The department launched the Child Behavioral Health dashboard to provide a data and analysis infrastructure across all child-serving sectors that will highlight needs and opportunities for improvement.
Initial data shows 33,902 Medicaid-insured children ages of 5-18 diagnosed with clinical depression in 2022, a figure that’s down slightly from 2019-21. Another 103,295 in the same age range were diagnosed with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder in 2022; and 11,437 were diagnosed with a substance use disorder, according to the dashboard.
Included risk factors show only about 49% of high school students said they felt good about themselves in a 2021 survey, compared to 36% who said they felt sad or hopeless. Another factor shows 11,405 babies born at a low birth weight that year.
“Adults born with extremely low birth weight reported significantly higher levels of anxiety, depression and shyness, as well as significantly lower levels of social functioning,” according to the dashboard.
Utilization indicators in the dashboard note that emergency visits for mental health conditions among all children and adolescents accounted for a larger proportion of pediatric visits during 2021-22 than during 2019. In total, 1,313 Medicaid-insured children ages 5-18 used the Emergency Department for behavioral health needs in 2022.
“We’re committed to improving the lives of children and families in North Carolina in a data-informed and transparent manner,” said Yvonne Copeland, director Division of Child and Family Well-Being. “Information is power. The more we and our partners know about the child behavioral health system, the better equipped we are to advocate for and provide the right solutions to meet the unique needs of children, families and communities across our state.”
Beyond the basics, the dashboard also allows users to zero in on data by geography, race, ethnicity, age and gender to highlight gaps or disparities in services that can be used to improve policies and better allocate resources.
The dashboard follows and supports a North Carolina School Behavioral Health Action Plan released in March 2023 by the Health Department in coordination with the Department of Public Instruction.
That plan included efforts to increase capacity for schools to identify and address issues; training for school personnel; school-based telehealth pilot programs; school health advisory councils; and a new statewide electronic health record system for students.
