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July 16, 2024
Contact: Elizabeth Goodsitt/Jennifer Miller 608-266-1683
Wisconsin State Office of Children's Mental Health Highlights the Mental Health Needs of Children with Disabilities in New Fact Sheet
July is Disability Pride Month, a time to honor the history and achievements of the disability community, but also a time to examine their experiences and struggles. Children with disabilities – whether physical, intellectual, or developmental – have higher rates of mental health conditions than children without disabilities. The mental health conditions have a significant, lasting, and negative impact on their lives. These children with the most needs also tend to be the most underserved by our care system.
One in five kids has a special health care need, whether autism, asthma, diabetes, epilepsy, learning disabilities, speech or language impairments, or intellectual and developmental disabilities. Children and youth with special health care needs (CYSHCN) require more care than other children, but data show they are five times more likely to forego care than children without special health care needs, due to difficulties finding the right care. Further complicating the care of these children, more than half of CYSHCN also have a mental health condition.
The fact sheet includes a number of recommendations for how parents, medical providers, policymakers, schools and communities can help connect CYSHCN to services and improve outcomes for these children and their families.
“For years I’ve heard from parents who are incredibly stressed and at the point of exhaustion by the obstacles facing their child with special health needs. Often their child has multiple conditions and they can’t find the right kind of help for their child's mental health concerns,” says OCMH Director Linda Hall.
Insights from parents who participate in OCMH’s Collective Impact Council attest to the complexities of raising a child with disabilities as well as the interplay between their disability and their mental health. The amount of bullying, harassment, exclusion, and isolation these children experience leads to increased rates of anxiety and depression that parents have to deal with 24/7.
"Schools play an important role in supporting the mental health of kids with disabilities, although schools lack adequate funding to provide all the support parents might like from them," said Director Hall. "The need for more staffing and training to support students with disabilities is evident given that students with disabilities, especially elementary school students, are most likely to experience seclusion and restraint."
As students with disabilities get older, there are continuing challenges and new barriers that need to be addressed at school and after they have exited high school. Students with disabilities should have mental health care plans embedded into their transition planning.
“Finding a mental health professional is difficult these days, but finding one who can address the mental health issues of a non-verbal child with autism is doubly difficult," said Director Hall.
Policymakers can provide relief by expanding compensation for the caregiving workforce and by supporting the Family Caregiver Tax Credit, which would alleviate stress on families.
Post-secondary programs could offer training on how to provide mental health care to youth with disabilities. Many mental health professionals lack the training and background on how to best serve this population.
Communities can help by designing spaces that are accessible to all children. Playgrounds with wheelchair accessible swings, libraries and museums with quiet spaces or calming sensory spaces, and public events that offer noise-reducing headphones are examples of helpful actions we can take to support children with disabilities.
See the complete fact sheet.
See previous fact sheets.
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