Youth with mental illness struggle to receive essential behavioral health care. One obstacle is denial of coverage by insurance. In California, managed care consumers may apply for independent medical review (IMR) which potentially overturns an insurance denial through the California Department of Managed Healthcare (CDMHC). The authors aim to…

This study explored the experiences of families in navigating the Ghanaian health system to address the general health needs of their children with intellectual and developmental disabilities (IDD). The sample involved 22 primary caregivers of children with IDD aged 3-18 years who participated in a semi-structured interview. The interviews were…

This study compared in-school and out-of-school behavioral health service use and associated expenditures among children of different ages and with different psychiatric disorders. Medicaid claims from one city provided a sample of 24,271 children aged 5-17 years with psychiatric disorders who received one or more Medicaid-funded behavioral health…

This study examined differences in the rates of psychiatric-related emergency department visits among adolescents with autism spectrum disorder, adolescents with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, and adolescents without autism spectrum disorder or attention deficit hyperactivity disorder. Additional outcomes included emergency department…

This study compared Medicaid service utilization and expenditures among adolescents with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) to adolescents with intellectual disability (ID) as they aged into adulthood. Medicaid Analytic eXtract (MAX) data was used to identify a national cohort. Winsorization was utilized to control for expenditure outliers. A greater…

Background: The patient-centered medical home (PCMH) is promoted as a way to improve access to care, health care outcomes, and control costs. The organizational, environmental, and patient characteristics associated with school-based health centers (SBHCs) obtaining PCMH recognition is currently unknown. A multitheoretical approach was used to…

We will discuss how we found evidence of courtesy stigma in a early case study and through those parental interviews, determined that siblings have an important story of their own to share. The issues surrounding courtesy stigma are that the family members of the child with an E/BD feel diminished and de-valued by the very professionals that…

Health care reform has changed the landscape for the nation's health safety net, and school-based health centers (SBHCs) remain an important part of this system. However, few large-scale studies have been conducted to assess their impact on access to care. This study investigated differences in access among a nationally representative sample of…

It might seem strange to ask whether increasing access to medical care can improve children's health. Yet Lindsey Leininger and Helen Levy begin by pointing out that access to care plays a smaller role than we might think, and that many other factors, such as those discussed elsewhere in this issue, strongly influence children's health.…

The characteristics of health care utilization during the last year of life by Taiwanese who died by suicide were analyzed. The degree of health services utilization was evaluated by extracting the data of National Health Insurance (NHI) outpatient cohort records in 2006. A total of 4,406 fatal suicide cases were matched with the 17,587,901…

The current emphasis on preventive health care and wellness services suggests that measures of skills and competencies needed to effectively navigate the health care system need to be better defined. We take an expanded perspective of health literacy and define it as a set of skills used to organize and apply health knowledge, attitudes and…

California has long been on the cutting edge of social and political change. This trendsetting continues today on issues from addressing climate change to supporting immigrant communities to ensuring equal rights for all. But, when reviewing the grades of this year's California Children's Report Card, it is difficult not to ask the question: why…

This year's "America's Children in Brief: Key National Indicators of Well-Being" continues more than a decade of dedication and collaboration by agencies across the Federal Government to advance our understanding of our Nation's children and what may be needed to bring them a better tomorrow. "America's Children in Brief, 2018"…

Each year since 1997, the Federal Interagency Forum on Child and Family Statistics has published a report on the well-being of children and families. The "America's Children" series provides accessible compendiums of indicators drawn across topics from the most reliable official statistics; it is designed to complement other more…

Objective: Little is known about racial/ethnic differences in the receipt of treatment for major depression in adolescents. This study examined differences in mental health service use in non-Hispanic white, black, Hispanic, and Asian adolescents who experienced an episode of major depression. Method: Five years of data (2004-2008) were pooled…