Cross-Sectional Study of Unmet Mental Health Need in 5- to 7-Year Old Latino Children in the United States: Do Teachers and Parents Make a Difference in Service Utilization? (original) (raw)
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Administration and Policy in Mental Health and Mental Health Services Research, 2007
This study examined predictors of treatment persistence (receiving mental health services at two time points one year apart) among children in Puerto Rico who had previously sought care for mental health concerns. Children and their primary caregivers completed interviews one year apart. Treatment persistence was lower among children recruited from community sampling (n = 137) than those children recruited from public and private clinics (N = 381). Persistence was associated with psychological measures of need and comorbidity only in the clinical sample, while in both samples persistence was associated with measures of family burden and school functioning. In multivariate analyses, persistence was associated in both the clinical and community samples with a measure of school functioning but not with diagnosis, impairment, or parental concerns about the child's behavior. Keywords Latino Á Hispanic Americans Á Children Á Mental health Á Health services research Á Delivery of health care Á Continuity of patient care Á Puerto Rican Á Family Á Burden Á Academic Á Child psychiatry Á Community Á Clinical
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Understanding Caregivers’ Help-Seeking for Latino Children's Mental Health Care Use
Medical Care, 2004
Background: Latino children have persistent low rates of mental health service use. Understanding the factors that influence caregivers' decisions about whether to use mental health care for their children can help explain why. Objective: The objective of this study was to investigate the factors reported by the primary caregiver that could help classify Puerto Rican children into users versus nonusers of mental health services and mental health versus school sector care, among users. Subjects: Data were collected from a random Puerto Rican community sample of caregiver-child dyads. Measures: Version-IV of the Computerized Diagnostic Interview for Children (DISC) was used to assess psychiatric disorders in children. The Service Assessment for Children and Adolescents (SACA) was used to examine the types of services used for mental health problems. Statistical Methods: The Classification and Regression Tree (CART) approach was used to develop a simple model simulating caregivers' decision-making around taking children for mental health care and the setting for care. Results: The classification model of use versus no use of mental health service suggested 3 significant predictors: child's level of impairment, parental concern, and child's difficulty in performing schoolwork. The classification model of sector of care, mental health versus school setting, identified 1 significant predictor, any disruptive disorder diagnosis. Conclusion: Assisting caregivers in linking a child's impairment with need for mental health care might be a mechanism to reduce children's unmet need. Approaches such as CART, used to identify factors predicting consumer choices in marketing, might be useful to select strategies for social campaigns targeted toward decreasing unmet need.
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