Improving Mental Healthcare for Children

New Report Identifies Local Gaps in Mental Healthcare

When the Charlotte Mecklenburg Opportunity Task Force released its findings earlier this year, mental health issues were cited as a major barrier to opportunity.

Recognizing the challenges, particularly for children, Foundation For The Carolinas, along with Mitchell’s Fund and the FFTC-managed Children’s Medical Fund, sponsored a study to identify the key players, programs, funding and support available to address mental and behavioral health needs for Mecklenburg County children and youth.  The project was driven by a growing concern among early educators, physicians, service providers, parents and others about the state of mental healthcare for Charlotte-Mecklenburg children.

The resulting report identifies major gaps in services and barriers to treatment, such as high insurance deductibles, long waiting lists, denied services and lack of trauma-certified clinicians and child psychologists. 

To address these issues and more, the report recommends three strategies that include 16 implementation tactics. Strategies include: 

• Prevention, including raising awareness about the importance of early brain development and providing more trauma training
• Increasing access to mental health services and support, including expanding school-based mental health and developing a provider clearinghouse; and 
• Improving the quality of services and support, including creating a data warehouse and adopting a common assessment.

Next steps include convening key stakeholders to discuss the findings and recommendations, and to collaboratively create an implementation strategy.