IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/cysrev/v32y2010i10p1291-1299.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Falling through the cracks: Gaps and barriers in the mental health system for America's disadvantaged children

Author

Listed:
  • Bringewatt, Elizabeth H.
  • Gershoff, Elizabeth T.

Abstract

The system for providing mental health services to children is fragmented and complex, and children and their families face multiple barriers to accessing care. This is especially true for children in low-income families, who have the greatest rate of mental health disorders but have the highest underutilization of services. The first section of this paper describes the unmet need for children's mental health services, including reasons for the disproportionate need among low-income children. The second section provides a brief overview of the history of children's mental health policies. The third section outlines the types of services available to children, highlighting the problems with this service delivery system. This is followed by a discussion of barriers that families face in accessing care. The paper concludes with recommendations for improving this fragmented system of service delivery.

Suggested Citation

  • Bringewatt, Elizabeth H. & Gershoff, Elizabeth T., 2010. "Falling through the cracks: Gaps and barriers in the mental health system for America's disadvantaged children," Children and Youth Services Review, Elsevier, vol. 32(10), pages 1291-1299, October.
  • Handle: RePEc:eee:cysrev:v:32:y:2010:i:10:p:1291-1299
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0190-7409(10)00130-1
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Gyamfi, Phyllis, 2004. "Children with serious emotional disturbance: the impact of poverty and receipt of public assistance on behavior, functioning, and service use," Children and Youth Services Review, Elsevier, vol. 26(12), pages 1129-1139, December.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Acri, Mary C. & Bornheimer, Lindsay A. & Hamovitch, Emily & Lambert, Kate, 2018. "An examination of the relationship between maternal depression and barriers to child mental health services," Children and Youth Services Review, Elsevier, vol. 93(C), pages 270-275.
    2. Jain, Sonia & Reno, Rebecca & Cohen, Alison K. & Bassey, Henrissa & Master, Mansi, 2019. "Building a culturally-responsive, family-driven early childhood system of care: Understanding the needs and strengths of ethnically diverse families of children with social-emotional and behavioral co," Children and Youth Services Review, Elsevier, vol. 100(C), pages 31-38.
    3. Keyser, Daniel & Ahn, Haksoon & Unick, Jay, 2017. "Predictors of behavioral problems in young children 3 to 9years old: The role of maternal and child factors," Children and Youth Services Review, Elsevier, vol. 82(C), pages 149-155.
    4. Rubén Chávez, Noé & “TK” Halmai-Gillan, Kristina & Esquivel, Krysta & McCarthy, Megan & DeVico, Nicholas & Lee, Sophia & Ferrer, Mildred & Ramos, Amy L., 2023. "Improving healthy connections in under-resourced youth: A YMCA San Diego mental health initiative," Children and Youth Services Review, Elsevier, vol. 150(C).
    5. Vostanis, Panos & Ruby, Florence & Jacob, Jenna & Eruyar, Şeyda & Mironga Getanda, Elijah & Haffejee, Sadiyya & Krishna, Murali & Edbrooke-Childs, Julian, 2022. "Youth and professional perspectives of mental health resources across eight countries," Children and Youth Services Review, Elsevier, vol. 136(C).
    6. Bailin, Abby & Bearman, Sarah Kate, 2022. "Brief, digital, self-directed, and culturally adapted: Developing a parenting intervention for primary care," Children and Youth Services Review, Elsevier, vol. 132(C).
    7. Scrivens, Catherine & Logan, Jayden & Reid, Natasha, 2023. "Navigating the barriers to supporting neurodevelopmental disorders in children in out-of-home care," Children and Youth Services Review, Elsevier, vol. 153(C).
    8. Hill, Katharine, 2017. "Prevalence, experiences, and characteristics of children and youth who enter foster care through voluntary placement agreements," Children and Youth Services Review, Elsevier, vol. 74(C), pages 62-70.
    9. Anderson, Joanna K. & Howarth, Emma & Vainre, Maris & Jones, Peter B. & Humphrey, Ayla, 2017. "A scoping literature review of service-level barriers for access and engagement with mental health services for children and young people," Children and Youth Services Review, Elsevier, vol. 77(C), pages 164-176.
    10. Stephan, Sharon H. & Connors, Elizabeth H. & Arora, Prerna & Brey, Laura, 2013. "A learning collaborative approach to training school-based health providers in evidence-based mental health treatment," Children and Youth Services Review, Elsevier, vol. 35(12), pages 1970-1978.
    11. Wathen, Maria V. & Decker, Patrick L.F. & Richards, Maryse H. & Tyson McCrea, Katherine & Onyeka, Cynthia & Weishar, Charity N. & DiClemente, Cara & Donnelly, Will, 2021. "Towards improving engagement of youth of color in cross-age mentoring programs in high poverty, high crime neighborhoods," Children and Youth Services Review, Elsevier, vol. 128(C).
    12. McCrea, Katherine Tyson & Richards, Maryse & Quimby, Dakari & Scott, Darrick & Davis, Lauren & Hart, Sotonye & Thomas, Andre & Hopson, Symora, 2019. "Understanding violence and developing resilience with African American youth in high-poverty, high-crime communities," Children and Youth Services Review, Elsevier, vol. 99(C), pages 296-307.
    13. Semanchin Jones, Annette & Kim, JaeRan & Hill, Katharine & Diebold, Josal, 2018. "Voluntary placements in child welfare: A comparative analysis of state statutes," Children and Youth Services Review, Elsevier, vol. 88(C), pages 387-394.
    14. Glassgow, Anne Elizabeth & Gerges, Michael & Martin, Molly A. & Estrada, Isela & Issa, Zahra & Lapin, Katerine & Morell, Laura & Solis, Nitza & Van Voorhees, Benjamin & Risser, Heather J., 2018. "Integration of mental health services into an innovative health care delivery model for children with chronic conditions," Children and Youth Services Review, Elsevier, vol. 95(C), pages 144-151.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Chunkai Li & Qiaobing Wu & Zurong Liang, 2019. "Effect of Poverty on Mental Health of Children in Rural China: The Mediating Role of Social Capital," Applied Research in Quality of Life, Springer;International Society for Quality-of-Life Studies, vol. 14(1), pages 131-153, March.
    2. Mennen, Ferol E. & Brensilver, Matthew & Trickett, Penelope K., 2010. "Do maltreated children who remain at home function better than those who are placed?," Children and Youth Services Review, Elsevier, vol. 32(12), pages 1675-1682, December.
    3. Okech, David, 2013. "The independent effects of socio-demographic and programmatic factors on economic strain among parents in a Child Savings Accounts program," Children and Youth Services Review, Elsevier, vol. 35(6), pages 950-959.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:cysrev:v:32:y:2010:i:10:p:1291-1299. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/locate/childyouth .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.