It is : Hurlburt, M. S., Leslie, L. K., Landsverk, J., Barth, R. P., Burns, B. J., Gibbons, R. D., Slymen, D. J., & Zhang, J. (2004). Contextual predictors of mental health service use among children open to child welfare. Archives of General Psychiatry, 61, 1217–1224.
In this paper, the author pointed out that race/ethnicity accounted for differentials in
service use; specifically, African American children were 0.61 times as likely
and Hispanic children were about half as likely to use services as white
children. For example, African American and Hispanic
children are less likely to receive specialty mental health services than white
children.
However, this service disparity can be attenuated if there is a strong linkage between child welfare and
mental health systems. The research findings showed that in counties with stronger child
welfare/mental health linkages, differentials in service use between African
American children and white children diminished. As linkage levels increase, differences
in rates of service use between white and African American children diminish.
Therefore, the authors believed that the coordination of
services between child welfare and mental health agencies, as it relates to the
mental health needs of children, may be able to prevent disparities in mental
health care use among African American children.
The child welfare system has long been criticized as a racist system. The normal discussion though, is about the rates of minority involvement and placement by the child welfare system. This is the first I've actually thought about discrepancies with how children are treated once they are involved in child welfare based on their race, although it is not surprising news to hear. As these differences seem to be erased by better linkage between child welfare and mental health, I wonder if poorer or more rural counties suffer from this racial disparity more often than affluent or urban ones.
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