Parent Survey Underscores Need for Mental Health Focus

Editor's note: This story was originally published on Nov. 4, 2021.

Results are in for the 2021 Community Health Needs Assessment parent survey conducted by Cook Children’s Center for Children’s Health and one thing is clear—the mental health of children is top-of-mind for parents, particularly during the pandemic.

Half of all children ages 6 to 17 living in Cook Children’s eight-county service area have a parent who is concerned that the pandemic will have a negative impact on both their child’s education and mental health, according to the survey. The impact of COVID-19 was also noted by parents and guardians as one of the top three barriers to children receiving necessary health services, along with a lack of insurance coverage and the scarcity of needed services available in the area they live.

These barriers played a role in 137,000 children not getting needed medical care, more than 180,000 kids being deprived of needed dental care, and 63,120 kids going without needed mental health care. When compared to the same demographics from the 2015 and 2018 parent surveys, all of these numbers represent an increase in children not getting the health care they need.

The survey revealed that parents need support, too. More than 30,000 children have a caregiver not coping “very well” or not “well at all” with the day-to-day demands of parenting, and 24% of children live with someone who has a mental illness, or is suicidal or depressed.

“Parents of teens score lower when it comes to coping well with the demands of parenting than those with kids ages 6 to 11,” said Blair Williams, community health analyst at the Center for Children’s Health. “So the question becomes what do we do for parents to help them grapple with those daily parenting demands and the really tough topics that they face with their teens that are relatively new to us adults and changing almost every day.”

These results, along with many other survey data points, were shared Tuesday at the Virtual Children’s Health Summit presented by the Center for Children’s Health. Nearly 300 community members representing a number of area schools, health agencies and community organizations attended the summit.

“We recognize and acknowledge that Cook Children's isn't the only one working to improve the health of children and families in our communities,” said Becki Hale, director of Child Health Evaluation within the Center for Children’s Health. “We have such strong community partnerships and these issues around children's health are so complex that it can't just be one entity. It has to be all of us working together. We're so grateful that we have such a strong community that comes together to support one another to help families.”

Every three years the Center for Children’s Health surveys parents and guardians within its service area, including Denton, Hood, Johnson, Parker, Tarrant and Wise counties. This year the Center added Grayson and Collin counties into the surveyed region in preparation of meeting the needs of children served by the new Cook Children’s-Prosper, slated to open in late 2022. It also increased the child age range from 0 to 14 to 0 to 17.

A total of 5,715 surveys were collected from a sample of households across the surveyed region at large, not just Cook Children’s patients. Surveys were also collected from parents of special underserved populations via partners within community shelters and other local aid agencies. The results are weighted to represent the actual population of children living in the service area. That means data percentages are translated into the actual number of children within the population the percentage represents.

“We use this data to see how we might need to adjust our current programs to best address the needs we already know exist within our community because of what we see within Cook Children’s Health Care System,” Hale said. “Mental health is a good example. Because of what we are seeing in our health system data around self-harm and suicide, we’re particularly looking a little closer at what the survey reveals about mental health knowing that there may be some opportunity to adjust our programming to address that issue, especially within the adolescent and teen population. It’s another piece of the puzzle to help us figure out how to best support families and children.”

Parents reported that 19% of children ages 6 to 17 have been told by a health care provider they have anxiety, and 10% have been told they have depression. That’s higher than the national numbers of 13% and 6% respectively. In addition, Cook Children’s has recorded a record number of suicide attempts by children within the last 12 months.

“The survey reinforces what we have seen over the past year with skyrocketing numbers within our mental and behavioral health services,” said Rick W. Merrill, President and CEO of Cook Children’s Health Care System. “In 2022, we’ll dive deep into mental health access and behavioral health services. We owe it to the hurting children in our community to continue to make this a top priority.”

In addition to addressing mental health, the Center for Children’s Health will work with its community partners to explore new and innovative approaches for increasing access to food, personal health care providers, insurance, oral health care, parent support networks, injury prevention education, and opportunities for physical activity.

“The information we shared at the summit was just the tip of the iceberg,” said Chris Pedigo, senior vice president of system planning, health analytics and the Center for Children’s Health. “We’ll continue to dig deep into these issues to understand how to join with our community partners to best address these needs.”

Other notable findings include:

• 55,570 children are living in households that “sometimes” or “often” can not afford enough to eat.
• 57% of children ages 3 to 5 have a caregiver who is coping “very well” with daily parenting demands, which is lower than the national percentage of 63%; and 51% of children ages 6 to 17 have a caregiver who is coping “very well” with daily parenting demands, also lower than the national percentage of 61%.
• 70% of children ages 3 to 5 are ready for school according to their caregiver, which is slightly lower than the national percentage of 75%.
• 8 in 10 children have “excellent” or “very good” health.
• 9 in 10 children had continuous insurance coverage for 12 consecutive months prior to completing the survey.

In February, the Center for Children’s Health will release part two of its Community Health Needs Assessment, which will include a report of the “why” behind many of the survey results learned from parent focus groups and community leader interviews. That information will be combined with the parent survey results as well as the results of a community leaders survey to complete the Community Health Needs Assessment, which will be released in spring 2022.