Vulnerable Teens and Mental Health

July 15, 5:12 PMSpecial Needs Kids ExaminerHeather Sedlock

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Adolescents are primed for trouble. Between the changing hormones and still-developing brains, there leaves lots of room for issues to crop up. Most of these issues involve mental health problems.

Susan Wile Schwarz wrote Adolescent Mental Health in the United States: Facts for Policymakers which was published in June of 2009 to the National Center for Children in Poverty website. A lot of special needs kids live in poverty because the parents are forced to pay out-of-pocket often times to pay for services. Even when some services are covered, other things are not. Eating “healthy” is very expensive and requires a lot more of a family’s income. 

Also, many times one parent has to stay in the home in order to care for the child, making it impossible to have two sources of income like many families have to do today to stay above the poverty line. Those are just a few reasons why there are so many special needs kids in poverty.

According to this report, 20% of adolescents have a diagnosable mental health disorder. Many different types of mental health disorders become noticeable during adolescence. Between 20% and 30% of adolescents have at least one major depressive episode before they reach adulthood. Suicide is the third leading cause of death in adolescents. Older adolescents, ages 15 to 19, are at an increased risk for suicide.  Between 500,000 to one million adolescents aged 15 to 24 attempt suicide every year.

With all those factoids, it is easy to see why parents and educators need to make sure there are significant support mechanisms for these children. According to this report, there are numerous reasons why children do not get the help they need.

One of these reasons is lack of access and use leading to 70% not receiving necessary care. Another strong reason is lack of insurance coverage. Almost 50% of State Child Health Insurance Programs (SCHIPS)place restrictions on inpatient and outpatient mental health care.

For instance, this author knows one severely traumatized girl was only allowed to see her therapist once every two months following years of psychological, emotional, physical, and verbal abuse. After this girl was freed from her abusive situation she needed more frequent visits with a therapist and a psychiatrist.

Another problem is a lack of trained specialists who know how to deal with adolescents and the problems faced by adolescents. A lack of confidentiality is another concern. Children cannot get help bythemselves for themselves except in only 20 states and in Washington D.C.  Children who are experiencing problems need a safe place to share their concerns without fear of reprisal.

This report also gives recommendations for policy-makers. 

 “A well-financed health prevention and response system that fosters communication and cooperation across sectors can provide adolescents better access to high quality resources that are responsive to their unique mental health needs.”

In order to do that, this report suggests funding and creating programs for adolescents that help teens improve decision-making skills and provide positive behavior models. A social support structure helps reduce impulsive risk-taking behaviors. Programs like TeenScreen and SafeTeam provide such support.

Further, the report recommends programs that provide school-based health centers throughout a state.  This will increase the chances that teens will receive the help that they need.  Again, a screening program like TeenScreen can help with this.

With $700 billion dollars spent annually on preventable adolescent health problems, financing strategies and programs that work to prevent these issues and the costs of care will dramatically drop and more funding would be made available towards more preventive strategies.

Teaching parents how to recognize mental health issues would be one of the most effective recommendations this report makes. Parents know their children and may know that something is not quite right but it can be hard to discern what is and what is not normal for teenage behaviors.

For example, a child may get upset and throw a temper tantrum at age 15 because she is not allowed to go out on a date. That type of thing looks awfully similar to a bipolar child’s rage episodes. How can a parent who has had no experience or training know which is which?

There are several more recommendations that this report gives; all of the recommendations are good sound advice. It is hoped that policy-makers across the U.S. will stand up and take note of them, implementing the plans and strategies and helping some of the country’s most vulnerable citizens.

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