To characterize telehealth services for children at mental health treatment facilities (MHTFs) and guide policy development for equitable access to child mental health care.
Approach:
Study Design: A secret shopper study was conducted contacting MHTFs across the US to inquire about telehealth availability and medication management for children.
Data Collection: Telephone surveys were administered by trained doctoral-level trainees posing as parents of potential child patients.
Sample Size: The study included 9933 MHTFs, with 2319 facilities contacted after exclusions.
Outcome Measures: Primary outcomes included whether MHTFs provided telehealth services and medication management for children.
Key Findings:
In 2022, 45.3% of adolescents received mental health care via telehealth.
Only a small proportion of children at MHTFs received services through telehealth.
Disparities in telehealth availability for mental health care have been documented.
Interpretation:
The study aims to provide insights into the availability of telehealth services for children in MHTFs, which could inform policy for improving access to mental health care.
Limitations:
The study focused only on MHTFs and may not represent all pediatric mental health services.
Data collection was limited to responses from facility staff, which may introduce bias.
Conclusion:
The findings highlight the need for further research on telehealth service availability in pediatric mental health care.
by Jonathan H. Cantor, Ryan K. McBain, Shannon Walsh, Fang Zhang, Alyssa Burnett, Russell Hanson, Aaron Kofner, Joshua Breslau, Ateev Mehrotra, Bradley D. Stein, Hao Yu
