It’s no secret that Washington’s youth have been experiencing a mental health crisis for years. Exacerbated by the pandemic, the number of youth experiencing depression and anxiety continues to grow even as communities and schools continue to normalize in this post-pandemic era.
A new report released by the state-wide Children’s Alliance this week says youth depression, thoughts of suicide, and other concerns are not a problem relegated to urban areas alone. Young people in every region of the state are struggling mentally and emotionally.
Hard numbers
According to the Alliance report “Where can we find hope during the epidemic of hopelessness facing our children?” more than half (58%) of Washington adolescents experience anxiety, depression or both. As many as 114,000 of 633,000 Washington teens need clinical care for anxiety and depression. Multi-racial youth have the highest self-reported rates of anxiety/depression symptoms. And female-identifying and LGBTQ+ youth report symptoms of depression and anxiety at double the rate of male-identifying and heterosexual youth, respectively. Non-binary youth experience depression or anxiety in 6 out of 7 cases, https://mentalhealthinnovation.org.
From the Children’s Alliance report “Where can we find hope during the epidemic of hopelessness facing our children?
But rather than merely point out the problem and toll, the report offers solutions, the central theme of which is narrowing or closing existing gaps in Washington’s behavioral health system and breaking down barriers to quality that many Washington kids face in getting the care they need.
“The patient journey in Washington is riddled with gaps that deprive most adolescents of the care they need,” the report said.
The low cost of closing the care gap
According to the report authors, “By expanding successful local initiatives, we estimate that Washington could address the majority of its youth care gap within a year or so, at an estimated cost of $25 million.”
“We cannot ignore the undeniable behavioral health struggles faced by youth in Washington,” said Children’s Alliance Executive Director Dr. Stephan Blanford in a report release. “The urgency to bridge the care gap and ensure all students receive the care they deserve cannot be overstated. Our report provides a roadmap to achieve this, leveraging successful local initiatives and adopting multi-tiered systems of support approach.”
Children’s Alliance, which made youth behavioral health its top policy priority in 2023, convened a small workgroup of youth behavioral health experts in Washington in 2022. Their task: Conduct a comprehensive analysis of the behavioral health landscape – and identify potential solutions to care gaps.
Expanding proven programs is a big part of the solution
The work group’s report quantifies the existing gaps for youth in Washington’s behavioral health system in care seeking, provider availability, affordability, and treatment effectiveness. It also examines programs and policies that could mitigate the barriers. Among other solutions, report authors say, among other strategies, the following successful local, state, and international initiatives and efforts should be scaled up or expanded to address the mental health care gaps:
- Universal screening ensures no one is overlooked. Expanding programs like King County’s universal screening efforts, brief intervention and referral treatment (SBIRT) would make sure every struggling student can be identified and connected with services; It’s important to note that some parents are up at arms about the use of private student data to develop the SBIRT Check Yourself program and the issue was investigated in a Watchdog report from The Seattle Times last August.
- Expand programs like G.R.O.W.T.H. (Gaining Resilience, Optimizing Wellness, Thinking Helpfully), a 6-session cognitive behavioral theory group conducted with 4-8 students launched at Tacoma Public Schools in 2018. Expanding group-based care models to all those who would like to engage in them and can benefit from such services would have a significant impact on the current mental health crisis;
- Expect fully funded virtual therapy and school-based integrated care models like Puyallup School District’s partnership with a telemedicine provider to bring free mental health care to youth in schools. Providers are available from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. with youth receiving care at home and in schools.
Evidence-based efforts like these need systems to support and fund them continually, report authors suggest, as long as the evidence remains strong that they help young people cope with or resolve persistent feelings of hopelessness and worry.
To read the whole report, go to the Children’s Alliance.
More at Seattle’s Child:
Six strategies for parenting kids with anxiety
Seattle Student Union: working to build safer communities in schools
