Washington state is not doing well when it comes to serving kids with mental health challenges. According to the national mental health advocacy group Mental Health America, when it comes to youth mental health or wellness, Washington 48th in the U.S. The downward trend of young struggling with mental and behavioral health issues started nearly a decade ago and continues today. As evidence, a new report from the statewide Children’s Alliance. points to 80,000 Washington adolescents currently suffering from major depression without professional care.
A pressing issue
The report is a collaboration between Children’s Alliance and report author Reid Saaris, who founded Equal Opportunity Schools in Seattle in 2007 and ran for Washington Superintendent of Public Instruction this year. It provides assessments of proposals aimed at changing the downward spiral and improving youth mental health in Washington and offers recommendations for low-cost approaches that would lead better mental health outcomes for youth in the year ahead.
“There is no issue more pressing today in the lives of young people, educators, and parents,” Saaris said in a release this week. “The good news is that there are strong, affordable, evidence-based solutions working well in pockets of our state, and around the country. Washington just needs to make the decision to ensure these solutions are available to all our adolescents in 2025.”
From the report ‘Building the Mental Health System Our Teens Need and Deserve Now.” Children’s Alliance
Key findings and recommendations:
Children’s Alliance announced the release of the new report, “Building the Mental Health System Our Teens Need and Deserve Now” on November 1. All of its recommendations are aimed at addressing the gap in access to care for the 80,000 young people who are not currently receiving help. Among the things that would do the most to improve the mental health of Washington’s youth:
- Pass legislation to curb social media usage: The report recommends that the Washington state legislature pass a bill to enforce and strengthen social media age limits. Depending on the age that is set, this legislation could directly and significantly benefit 13,000 (if set at age 13) to 42,000 (if set at age 16) of the 80,000 adolescents with major depression and no care, the report found.
- Increase access to group therapy: The report recommends an increase in the Medicaid reimbursement rates for group therapy to provide incentives and resources for providers to offer group care. Washington currently does not have enough mental health care providers to reach every young person in need with individualized therapy. Helping 14% of existing clinical therapists to deliver group-based care would close most of the gap between clinician capacity and patient needs. Group care, while not appropriate for every case, has shown to be highly effective and is often even preferred by adolescents.
- Create a statewide platform for screening, brief interventions and teletherapy: The report recommends that Washington provide universal screening and brief interventions, and universal access to paid-for teletherapy for adolescents in need. On average, teletherapy is shown to be as effective as in-person therapy for children, adolescents, and their parents. It is also especially beneficial for internalizing disorders like anxiety and depression. Teletherapy can help solve the near-term clinician capacity shortage by making scheduling appointments more efficient, expanding the geographic and demographic pool of providers, and expanding provider availability when implemented within schools.
Cheaper and easier to implement
Children’s Alliance officials point out that current legislation and proposals to increase access to care “require significant funding and do not reach the majority of adolescents who are most in need.” Report authors support a proposal set for the upcoming legislative session that would increase funding for school social workers equipped to provide therapy to students, but say it is likely to reach less than 2% of the tweens and teens in more dire need of intervention for depression and anxiety. The report’s recommendations could be quickly implemented and require significantly state less funding (about $25 million).
Assigning a youth mental health lead
To ensure best strategies for improving youth mental health are adopted and enforced, report authors say the next governor of Washington should appoint a dedicated lead as part of his office. That person should be focused solely on youth mental health, enforcing social media age limits, and ensuring universal access to care within the first year of the administration.
“Our next governor should take accountability for implementing these solutions and making systemic progress for Washington adolescents,” the authors wrote. “The legislature should prioritize funding this work.
“We believe that the lack of a coordinating entity with responsibility for addressing the youth mental health emergency has hobbled Washington’s response,” the report continues. “We have the Superintendent of Public Instruction leading the state’s involvement in local schools, we have the Department of Health, the Department of Social and Human Services, the Health Care Authority, the Department of Children Youth and Families, and more. When it comes to social media age limits, the Attorney General’s Office and the Department of Commerce both have relevant purview. Some of these offices are independently elected and others report to the Governor. Meanwhile the legislature holds the policy and spending prerogatives but lacks implementation capacity.”
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