Increased behavioral health needs and continued psychosocial stress among children with medical complexity and their families during the COVID‐19 pandemic

Children entering custody within the child welfare system have been found to have high levels of trauma and significant behavioral health needs. In this paper, authors demonstrate how a structured functional well-being assessment can be used with the custody population to promote an understanding of behavioral health needs, inform case planning, and measure functional improvement over time. Specifically, this paper will: (a) briefly describe how two states implemented a common standardized assessment of functioning to inform case planning and measure well-being progress of children in the custody of a public child welfare system (b) examine what this common assessment tool reveals about the strengths and needs of children entering custody across two sites and (c) describe the magnitude of change in functional improvement measured across 6 months. This paper will contribute to the existing knowledge by sharing possible themes in functioning related to children entering custody while examining changes in functioning over time. Implications for practice, policy, and future research will be discussed.

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Gender, Geography, and Justice: Behavioral Health Needs and Mental Health Service Use Among Women in Rural Jails

Criminal Justice and Behavior ◽

10.1177/00938548211017588 ◽

2021 ◽

pp. 009385482110175

Author(s):

Erin B. Comartin ◽

Amanda Burgess-Proctor ◽

Jennifer Harrison ◽

Sheryl Kubiak

Keyword(s):

Mental Health ◽

Behavioral Health ◽

Rural Women ◽

Service Use ◽

Urban Women ◽

Health Needs ◽

Mental Health Service Use ◽

Urban Men ◽

Health Need ◽

To Receive

This multi-jail study examines the behavioral health needs and service use in a sample of 3,787 individuals in jail, to compare women in rural jails to their gender and geography counterparts (that is rural men, urban women, and urban men). Compared to urban women (17.9%, n = 677), rural men (18.2%, n = 690), and urban men (56.1%; n = 2,132), rural women (7.6%, n = 288) had significantly higher odds of serious mental illness and co-occurring mental health and substance use disorders. Rural woman were nearly 30 times more likely to receive jail-based mental health services; however, a discrepancy between screened mental health need (43.1%, n = 124) and jail-identified mental health need (8.4%, n = 24) shows rural women are severely under-identified compared to their gender/geography counterparts. These findings have implications for the changing nature of jail populations and suggests the need to improve behavioral health identification methods.

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G520 Innovative funding streams for children with medical complexity

10.1136/archdischild-2020-rcpch.441 ◽

2020 ◽

Author(s):

M Salama ◽

MR Kelly

Keyword(s):

Children With Medical Complexity ◽

Medical Complexity

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Children with Medical Complexity: Challenges and Opportunities for Human Factors/Ergonomics

Proceedings of the Human Factors and Ergonomics Society Annual Meeting ◽

10.1177/1071181320641162 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 64 (1) ◽

pp. 697-701

Author(s):

Hanna Barton ◽

Ryan Coller ◽

Sara Finesilver ◽

Christopher Lunsford ◽

Rupa S. Valdez ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Human Factors ◽

Family Caregivers ◽

Family Caregiver ◽

Children With Medical Complexity ◽

Patient Journey ◽

Medical Complexity ◽

Challenges And Opportunities ◽

Vulnerable Patient

For vulnerable patient populations, such as children with medical complexity (CMC), the patient journey is fraught with challenges. By providing a range of perspectives including clinicians, a family caregiver, and Human Factors/Ergonomics (HF/E) experts, the present panel will describe the unique opportunities for HF/E to design jointly optimized systems for CMC and their family caregivers, including an explication of some of the specific challenges and complexities related to studying the work of and designing systems for this population. We will also highlight the ways in which HF/E could help in the design of solutions to improve outcomes for families.

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