Utilization of public mental health services by children with serious emotional disturbances

The Integrated Database (IDB) was created to provide a broad picture of the use of state-funded mental health (MH) and substance abuse (SA) services. Assembled separately for three states (Delaware, Oklahoma, and Washington), the IDB links client-level and service-level data maintained by the state MH, SA, and Medicaid agencies. This study used the IDB to examine public MH services for children with serious emotional disturbances (SED) in 1996. Children with SED represented 9% to 22% of all children with MH service use. Between one half and two thirds of children with SED received psychotropic medication; 20% to 40% had a MH inpatient or residential stay. Medicaid was the primary funder of MH services for children with SED; only 2% to 12% of children with SED received services solely through the state MH agency.