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Substance use disorder and mental health diagnoses among Medicaid-enrolled youth before the pandemic. Summary of findings from four states and the District of Columbia
Substance use disorder and mental health diagnoses among Medicaid-enrolled youth before the pandemic. Summary of findings from four states and the District of Columbia
- Collection:
- Health Policy and Services Research
- Alternate Title(s):
- Summary of findings from four states and the District of Columbia
- Author(s):
- Lynch, Victoria, author
Clemans-Cope, Lisa, author - Contributor(s):
- Health Policy Center (Urban Institute), issuing body.
- Publication:
- Washington, DC : Urban Institute, April 2023
- Language(s):
- English
- Format:
- Text
- Subject(s):
- Health Equity -- economics
Health Policy
Medicaid -- economics
Mental Disorders -- diagnosis
Psychology, Adolescent -- economics
Schools -- organization & administration
Substance-Related Disorders -- diagnosis
California
Colorado
District of Columbia
Massachusetts
New Mexico - Genre(s):
- Technical Report
- Abstract:
- Public attention has been drawn to headlines about increases in SUD, opioid overdose, suicide, and other mental health conditions among US young people that coincided with the implementation of widespread mitigation measures during the COVID-19 pandemic. And these headlines have been corroborated in further academic study. In this brief on adolescents and young adults (hereafter “youth”), we note that even in the decade before the pandemic, youth were trending worse on many measures of behavioral health conditions. Opioid-related mortality increased threefold among youth between 1999 and 2016, and rates of mental health conditions, including anxiety, depression, and suicidality, increased substantially over the same period. From 2009 to 2019, the proportion of high school students reporting persistent feelings of sadness or hopelessness increased by 40 percent, the share seriously considering attempting suicide increased by 36 percent, and the share creating a suicide plan increased by 44 percent (CDC 2020). Between 2011 and 2015, youth psychiatric visits to EDs for depression, anxiety, and behavioral challenges increased by 28 percent, with the largest increases among adolescents (54 percent) and African American (53 percent) and Hispanic patients (91 percent). Between 2006–07 and 2017–18, suicide rates among youth ages 10 to 24 increased by 57 percent. In this brief, we synthesize results from five briefs about the prevalence and characteristics of Medicaid-enrolled youth with a behavioral health condition in California, Colorado, New Mexico, Massachusetts, and Washington, DC, to highlight similarities and differences across the states and discuss their significance to policies related to prevention and treatment of behavioral health conditions. Medicaid is the largest single funder of health services for youth—about two-fifths of adolescents and one-quarter of young adults in the United States are enrolled in Medicaid—and many states are innovating their Medicaid programs to improve behavioral health–related services, including services tailored to youth. Early intervention for SUD and mental health conditions is critical for all youth but especially critical for Medicaid enrollees because enrollees have increased risks of negative consequences of these conditions because of structural disadvantages, including low family wealth and historically racist policies related to substance use.
- Copyright:
- Reproduced with permission of the copyright holder. Further use of the material is subject to CC BY-NC-DC license. (More information)
- Extent:
- 1 online resource (1 PDF file (12 pages))
- Illustrations:
- Illustrations
- NLM Unique ID:
- 9918627784206676 (See catalog record)
- Permanent Link:
- http://resource.nlm.nih.gov/9918627784206676