Editorial: Disparities in Access to Child Psychiatric Services: Can We Shift the Landscape?

Abstract

A National Academy of Medicine report published in 1993 defined disparities in health care as "a difference in access or treatment provided to members of different racial or ethnic groups that is not justified by the underlying health conditions or treatment preferences of the groups."¹ Disparities in access to and quality of mental health services have persisted for racially minoritized children and for many rural communities in the United States. The global pandemic has taken an enormous toll on the mental health and well-being of youth and their families and has exacerbated preexisting needs.² The rapid expansion of telehealth capacity, providing services via text, telephone, or video, has provided access to a spectrum of services for individuals and expert consultation for partners in low-resource communities. Telehealth has demonstrated effectiveness for lowering the barriers to seeking treatment in rural communities for youth with suicidality, depression, and anxiety.³ However, disenfranchised, low-income populations lacking sufficient in-person care or internet broadband to support telepsychiatry services or who encounter other barriers, such as underinsurance or no insurance and limited cultural and linguistic matched services, continue to have poor access to care and are at risk for disparate outcomes.⁴ In the midst of a pandemic and an accelerated child and adolescent mental health emergency in the United States, disparities in access to services presents a crisis within a crisis. Is the services landscape shifting to address the need?