Study reveals persistent gaps in child mental health access

A new study led by the Harvard Pilgrim Health Care Institute finds that mental health care gaps for U.S. children remain stark: one in five households reported a child needing treatment, yet nearly a quarter didn't receive it, and many who did still struggled to access care.

Results are published on February 16 in JAMA Pediatrics.

Using data from the U.S. Census Bureau Household Pulse Survey from June 2023 – September 2024, the team assessed how many families perceived a mental health care need for their children, whether they received that care, and if they found difficulty in getting it. Among 173,174 households, one in five reported a need for mental health treatment for at least one child. The study team also found disparities among which families received care and which faced the greatest challenge in getting it.

Nearly one quarter of parents in U.S. households with children reported that at least one of their children did not receive the mental health care they needed, underscoring persistent gaps in access. It is concerning to see larger gaps for single-parent and multi-child households, households with homeschooled children, uninsured households, and households with Medicaid."

Alyssa Burnett, lead author of the study and project manager at the Harvard Pilgrim Health Care Institute

In addition to providing an updated snapshot of mental health needs among youth in the U.S., the study supports existing evidence that many external factors can affect access mental health care, pinpointing potential areas for intervention and policy support.

"Our analysis provides timely evidence that, despite the increasing awareness of youth mental health needs, access to necessary mental health care remains a challenge for a large number of U.S. households," said senior author Hao Yu, Harvard Medical School associate professor of population medicine at the Harvard Pilgrim Health Care Institute. "Strategies such as child mental health workforce initiatives and integrating mental health care into primary care should be implemented at the state level to remove barriers to this much-needed care."