What California can do to improve children’s mental health – Orange County Register

Children in California are struggling. The unprecedented levels of toxic and traumatic stress stemming from the pandemic have exacerbated a pre-existing crisis for children’s mental health.

Even before the pandemic began, teen suicide and self-harm rates were on the rise. Now, nearly two years after the pandemic, social isolation, emotional disconnection, economic stress and the physical impact of COVID have impacted our youth and exacerbated the problem. Another very serious problem.

The Little Hoover Commission, California’s independent government watchdog, called on the state to strengthen children’s mental and emotional health support systems. The state must appoint an accountable leader, set clear goals, encourage coordination, and use schools as the primary venue for helping children. This will ensure that the state uses funds dedicated to children’s mental and emotional health effectively and in the most impactful manner, both in the short and long term.

COVID has had a single cross-sectional impact. It is a major cause of stress and anxiety while safety measures related to the pandemic – including social distancing and distance learning – keep many children out of their usual support.

Chronic stress is affecting many children’s abilities to regulate emotions and behaviors, pay attention, and initiate and complete tasks. Educators are witnessing this first-hand.

As more children return to face-to-face school this fall, school districts have reported soaring dropout rates and an increase in student misconduct. Even worse, at the beginning of 2021, emergency department visits for suspected suicide were nearly 51% higher among adolescent girls and 4% higher among adolescent boys than in adolescent girls. same time in 2019.

The special need to support the mental health of young people has gone unnoticed.

Major national organizations declared children’s mental health emergencies this fall. The Surgeon General of the United States issued an advisory last month with recommendations to support children amid the mental health crisis.

Now, California must turn this attention into action.

Problem? California has long struggled to adequately support the mental and emotional health of children.

Children’s mental health support systems face a series of systemic barriers – including decentralization and workforce shortages – that prevent children from accessing much-needed mental health services. . In 2018, California ranked 48th nationally for providing mental health services to children.

Furthermore, access to care is often the most challenging for young people from minority and low-income communities, who are also bearing the brunt of the impacts of the pandemic.

The good news is that Governor Gavin Newsom and the Legislature have taken important steps to improve California’s child mental health support system. This year, they established the Child and Youth Behavioral Health Initiative — a $4.4 billion investment to develop a comprehensive mental health system for Californians from birth. to 25 years old.

In our report, COVID-19 and Child Mental Health, the committee called for additional reforms to ensure that the behavioral health initiative achieves its potential:

First, establish a single, shared leadership perspective on children’s mental health. This statewide leader needs to be tasked with creating clear plans for coordinating and implementing the Child and Youth Behavioral Health Initiative.