The emails and phone calls can, at times, be relentless. Young families seeking help from our community clinic on the University of Denver campus often wait over a month for specialized therapy services tailored to children and their parents. At the height of the COVID pandemic, requests for appointments had nearly doubled and demand has remained high ever since. It’s a testament to the growing mental health crisis gripping our entire nation.
While Americans of all age groups are confronting mental health issues at alarming rates, our team of psychologists and student clinicians are particularly alarmed by the well-being of children. Kids and their families currently make up half of our patients.
Data shows that 50% of all mental health conditions begin before age 14, and parents often share the anguish and frustration of trying to find support for a child in crisis, as these services are often highly sought-after and costly when paying out of pocket. These calls for help are indicative of a systemic failure to address the needs of the most vulnerable.
Here in our home state of Colorado, mental health has become a growing priority for lawmakers – dozens of bills have been under consideration this session, and several pieces of recent legislation are already making a difference. We encourage other lawmakers around the country to follow suit and we’re calling for new legislation that would help financially support – and therefore incentivize – developing professionals hoping to enter this field.
An example of recent legislation already making a difference in our state is a law requiring Medicaid to cover mental health services for qualifying youth (up to age 21) without a formal mental health diagnosis. More than 4 in 10 children nationally are covered by Medicaid, and 25 states have taken the initial step of investing in their school Medicaid program to take advantage of federal funding. Colorado’s law takes it a step further by removing the need for a diagnosis and therefore dismantling a potential barrier to support and treatment.
During the pandemic, CDC findings show that 44% of American children had depressive episodes lasting at least two weeks, and nearly half of those had thought about suicide. Diagnosing mental illness and finding successful interventions in childhood and adolescence is paramount, so removing obstacles for those seeking services, as these laws aim to do, is a game-changer.
Another newly enacted Colorado law provides funding to support school-based mental health professionals in the K-12 system. Across the country, in the 2022-23 school year, there was an average of 1 psychologist for every 1,119 students in kindergarten through 12th grade, and almost 40% of school districts had no school psychologists at all. Funding grants that facilitate the hiring of additional mental health professionals, fostering connections between schools and community providers, and offering vital professional development for current counselors are all steps in the right direction.
In order to make care more accessible, Colorado lawmakers also established I Matter in the fall of 2021. Kids and teens up to age 18 – and under 21 if receiving special education services – can sign up online to access six free telehealth or in-person counseling sessions. More than 11,000 kids have accessed the program in the last two and a half years. Lawmakers are currently considering a bill to make the program permanent before the legislative session ends in May.
While we are encouraged by these initiatives and hopeful that other states will follow suit, we also recommend further legislative action. The Biden administration has increased funding for schools to hire additional support, but we must further strengthen the pathways to not just recruit but to also fully prepare these professionals. State or federal lawmakers should increase funding for scholarships and further support loan forgiveness programs for individuals entering the mental health field.
We believe these incentives will help alleviate the financial burden and remove barriers for aspiring professionals while also ensuring an influx of diverse talent into this critically under-resourced field. At DU, we’ve revised our curriculum to better cultivate a workforce dedicated to serving children. We now offer nearly a dozen courses designed to provide graduate students with the training they need to work with kids of all ages.
Let’s build on the legislative progress made in Colorado and further advocate for additional support. The future of our children and our society depends on collective action and commitment to supporting mental health care for all.
Jeremy Haefner is the 19th chancellor of the University of Denver.
Torrey Wilson is the dean of the Graduate School of Professional Psychology at the University of Denver.
