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Published Online: 2 August 2024

Mental Health Agency Officials’ Perceived Priorities for Youth Mental Health and Factors That Influence Priorities

Blanche Wright, Ph.D. [email protected], Katherine L. Nelson, Ph.D., M.P.H., Kimberly E. Hoagwood, Ph.D., and Jonathan Purtle, Dr.P.H., M.P.H.Authors Info & Affiliations
Publication: Psychiatric Services
In Advance
https://doi.org/10.1176/appi.ps.20230430
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Abstract

Objective:

This study aimed to characterize the perceived priorities of state and county policy makers for youth mental health services and the factors that influence those priorities.

Methods:

Mental health agency officials (N=338; N=221 state officials, N=117 county officials) representing 49 states completed a Web-based survey in 2019–2020. On 5-point scales, respondents rated the extent to which 15 issues were priorities for their agency in providing youth mental health services and the extent to which nine factors influenced those priorities.

Results:

Suicide was identified as the highest priority (mean±SD rating=4.38±0.94), followed by adverse childhood experiences and childhood trauma and then increasing access to evidence-based treatments. Budget issues (mean=4.27±0.92) and state legislative priorities (mean=4.01±0.99) were perceived as having the greatest influence on setting priorities.

Conclusions:

These findings provide insights into youth mental health policy priorities and can be used to guide implementation and dissemination strategies for research and program development within state and county systems.

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Information & Authors

Information

Published In

Go to Psychiatric Services
Go to Psychiatric Services
Psychiatric Services
In Advance

History

Received: 25 August 2023
Revision received: 15 April 2024
Revision received: 15 May 2024
Accepted: 23 May 2024
Published online: 2 August 2024

Keywords

  1. public policy issues
  2. research/service delivery
  3. financing/funding/reimbursement
  4. youth mental health
  5. legislation

Authors

Details

Blanche Wright, Ph.D. [email protected]
Department of Health Policy and Management, University of California, Los Angeles, Los Angeles, and RAND, Santa Monica, California (Wright); Department of Health Management and Policy, Dornsife School of Public Health, Drexel University, Philadelphia (Nelson); Department of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, Grossman School of Medicine (Hoagwood), and Department of Public Health Policy and Management, School of Global Public Health (Purtle), New York University, New York City.
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Katherine L. Nelson, Ph.D., M.P.H.
Department of Health Policy and Management, University of California, Los Angeles, Los Angeles, and RAND, Santa Monica, California (Wright); Department of Health Management and Policy, Dornsife School of Public Health, Drexel University, Philadelphia (Nelson); Department of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, Grossman School of Medicine (Hoagwood), and Department of Public Health Policy and Management, School of Global Public Health (Purtle), New York University, New York City.
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Kimberly E. Hoagwood, Ph.D.
Department of Health Policy and Management, University of California, Los Angeles, Los Angeles, and RAND, Santa Monica, California (Wright); Department of Health Management and Policy, Dornsife School of Public Health, Drexel University, Philadelphia (Nelson); Department of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, Grossman School of Medicine (Hoagwood), and Department of Public Health Policy and Management, School of Global Public Health (Purtle), New York University, New York City.
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Jonathan Purtle, Dr.P.H., M.P.H.
Department of Health Policy and Management, University of California, Los Angeles, Los Angeles, and RAND, Santa Monica, California (Wright); Department of Health Management and Policy, Dornsife School of Public Health, Drexel University, Philadelphia (Nelson); Department of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, Grossman School of Medicine (Hoagwood), and Department of Public Health Policy and Management, School of Global Public Health (Purtle), New York University, New York City.
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Notes

Send correspondence to Dr. Wright ([email protected]).

Competing Interests

Dr. Nelson was an employee of Merck and ViiV Healthcare during manuscript development and owns stock in GlaxoSmithKline. The other authors report no financial relationships with commercial interests.

Funding Information

Funding for this study was provided by NIMH grant P50 MH113662 (to Dr. Hoagwood), by Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality grant T32 HS000046 (to Dr. Wright), and by NIMH grants R21 MH125261 and R01 MH131649 (to Dr. Purtle).

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