Rural Children Experience Different Rates of Mental Health Diagnosis and Treatment. Research and Policy Brief.

摘要

Research indicates that privately insured, rural adults have lower use of office-based mental health services, but higher use of prescription medicines than their urban counterparts. Similar studies for rural children have been limited to specific populations, diagnoses, or to single states. Patterns for rural children may be different than those of urban children and adults generally because of their high enrollment in Medicaid and the State Children's Health Insurance Program, which tend to have more generous behavioral health benefits than private coverage and may equalize rural-urban treatment patterns. On the other hand, the more limited supply of specialty mental health providers in rural areas, particularly for children, could lead to lack of access and lower utilization of some types of mental health services in rural areas versus urban. Using data from the 2002-2008 Medical Expenditures Panel Survey (MEPS), this study examines two research questions: (1) do patterns of children's mental health diagnosis and servie use (e.g., office visits and psychotropic medications) differ by rural-urban residence, and (2) what is the effect of income and insurance tupe on use of mental health services.