North Carolina is getting failing grades for meeting the mental health needs of the state’s children, according to the 2023 Child Health Report Card released Tuesday.
The state received F grades in mental health, school-based health, housing and economic security, and birth outcomes in the report released by NC Child and the North Carolina Institute of Medicine. The groups say action is needed, pointing to statistics such as the rise in suicides and gun deaths among young people.
“Our state is falling woefully short of our goals for children’s mental health and well-being,” Kathleen Colville, president and CEO of the N.C. Institute of Medicine, said in a statement. “As we continue our pandemic recovery, this report should be a call to action for consensus-building around policies and programs that promote the health and safety of all North Carolina kids.
Suicides and attempts up
Mental health is a major focus in the new report card, which is issued every two years.
The report notes that an “unprecedented” 67 children ages 0-18 died by suicide in North Carolina in 2020.
Other alarming statistics include:
▪ One in five North Carolina high school students reported seriously considering attempting suicide in 2021, up from 16% in 2017.
▪ One in 10 North Carolina high school students reported actually making a suicide attempt.
▪ LGBTQ+ students are more than three times more likely to consider or attempt suicide than their heterosexual peers.
Youth depression rising
The groups warn that diagnoses of mental health concerns are also on the rise.
More than one in 10 children ages 3-17 in North Carolina had a diagnosis of depression or anxiety in 2020. That’s a 49% increase from 2016.
“This will come as no surprise for anyone who is a parent, around kids, or working with kids in dealing with them that there’s more diagnoses of what’s called mood disorders: depression and anxiety,” Colville said at a webinar Tuesday.
Colville said that concern can be addressed by adding more school counselors and nurses, especially in rural parts of the state where access to mental health services may be harder to find.
Gun deaths rising
At a time when many causes of child death in North Carolina are going in the right direction, Colville said one number is going the wrong way.
Child deaths involving a firearm rose more than 40% in from 2019 to 2021. The rate is increasing more in North Carolina than nationally.
“Homicide and suicide, these are the only causes of child death that are increasing in North Carolina,” Colville said. “These are preventable and we need to pay attention to that.”
One of the report’s recommendations is to make it harder for children and youth to get access to lethal means of self-harm. This includes safe storage of firearms and prescription drugs.
Other recommendations include:
▪ Removing barriers to mental health care.
▪ Enhancing the availability of mental health care and crisis intervention in public schools, particularly in rural areas where specialty care is less available;
Areas of improvement
The state got higher grades on other areas, including:
▪ A — Insurance coverage
▪ B — Environmental Health; Health Services Utilization and Immunization; Preconception and Maternal Health & Support
▪ C — Teen Births; Breastfeeding; Oral Health;
▪ D — Education; Healthy Eating and Active Living; School Health; Child Abuse & Neglect; Tobacco, Alcohol, and Substance Use
The high grade for insurance coverage comes from the increase in the number of adults and children who have medical coverage. Luna Homsi, health policy analyst for NC Child, said it’s exciting that 94.5% of the state’s children have insurance coverage.
Homsi said the A grade was largely due to people keeping Medicaid coverage when a public health emergency was declared during the pandemic. While the federal government’s public health emergency has ended, a new bill signed into law will expand the state’s Medicaid coverage.
“We are hopeful that Medicaid expansion will ensure that more parents are able to be happy and healthy and create the nurturing environments that parents need,” Homsi said.
This story was originally published April 05, 2023 8:00 AM.
