Young Hearts & Minds - Making a Commitment to Children's Mental Health

Last year the Commission issued a report on mental health services for California's adults. In that review, we discovered that California explicitly rations care to only those with the most extreme needs and even then we turn people away. The Commission called for California to ensure that everyone who needs care receives care.

In this report we turn our attention to children. And while services for children are better financed, there is still no overarching commitment to ensure that essential services are provided.

As a result, children also endure a system that turns them away until their needs are severe. Because there are no standards, children often do not receive the right care at the right time in the right way. Because we do not measure outcomes, there is no pressure on the system to improve.

The costs and consequences of these results are unacceptably high, but are not well-known. Jailers concede that boys and girls are locked behind bars because we have chosen not to provide necessary treatment services. Research shows that just one in four children who are burdened by emotional and behavioral needs, graduates with a diploma. Many are shunted into independent learning programs where they struggle without needed support. And about half of the children in foster care do not receive the treatment they need.

Most appalling, despite ample opportunities to provide appropriate care, little children, some who enter foster care as babies can be repeatedly traumatized by their families, by other children, and by a system that fails to meet their needs. Some are institutionalized for the rest of their lives.

These tragedies are repeated daily for children who are cast into a maelstrom of rules and regulations that are not based on their best interests. A few of their stories are told in this report. Most of these children have extreme needs that in some cases are the product of the system itself. The untold stories are of those children who are never helped at all.

Moreover, these circumstances are not limited to a few thousand children in the most dire straits. Inadequate mental health care undermines higher profile public efforts. Children can't learn when they are threatened or distraught because of discord in their home or when they are fearful of the violence in their neighborhood. Alternatively, appropriate care can help children learn and make better choices, often crucial decisions that can lead to either a life of incarceration or a life of contributions.