Health Resource Package: Mental Health Care for Kids
Congress Asks . . .
How Much Mental Health Care Are Kids Getting, and How Much Does It Cost?
RAND Health Research
On average, 5% to 7% of all young people receive mental health care each year.
- Adolescents (ages 12-17) are the biggest users of these services.
Hispanic children are less likely than white or African American children to receive mental health care.
- About 4% of Hispanic children receive care, compared with
- About 5% of African American children and
- About 6% of white children.
The estimated annual cost of treating troubled youth is $12 billion.
- Privately insured youth account for nearly half of total mental health expenditures.
- Medicaid recipients generate only about a quarter of the costs.
The nature of mental health care for young people has changed considerably.
- Sixty percent of care is now given on an outpatient basis, much of it from school-based programs.
- Use of psychotropic medication has grown dramatically.
- More than $1 billion was spent in 1998 on psychotropic medication to treat, on average, 4% of all youth, predominantly ages 6-17.
- Stimulants and antidepressants accounted for nearly three-fourths of the bill.
References
This fact sheet is based on the following publications:"Mental Health Care for Youth: Who Gets It? How Much Does It Cost? Who Pays? Where Does the Money Go?" 2001; RAND RB-4541 (HTML or print-friendly version).
Ringel JS, Sturm R. "National Estimates of Mental Health Utilization and Expenditures for Children in 1998." Journal of Behavioral Health Services Research. 2001;28(3):319-333.
Stein B, Sturm R, Kapur K, Ringel JS. "Psychotropic Medication Costs Among Youth with Private Insurance." Psychiatric Services. 2001;52(2):152.
For more information, contact Shirley Ruhe at (703) 413-1100, extension 5632, or by email at ruhe@rand.org.
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