Racial/ethnic minority children's use of psychiatric emergency care in California's Public Mental Health System.

• Autores: Jaya Gupta, Mary C. Masland, Anne M. Libby, Neal T. Wallace, Kia Fawley
• Localización: American journal of public health, ISSN 0090-0036, Vol. 98, Nº. 1, 2008, págs. 118-124
• Idioma: inglés
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• Resumen

  • OBJECTIVES: We examined rates and intensity of crisis services use by race/ethnicity for 351,174 children younger than 18 years who received specialty mental health care from California's 57 county public mental health systems between July 1998 and June 2001. METHODS: We used fixed-effects regression for a controlled assessment of racial/ethnic disparities in children's use of hospital-based services for the most serious mental health crises (crisis stabilization services) and community-based services for other crises (crisis intervention services). RESULTS: African American children were more likely than were White children to use both kinds of crisis care and made more visits to hospital-based crisis stabilization services after initial use. Asian American/Pacific Islander and American Indian/Alaska Native children were more likely than were White children to use hospital-based crisis stabilization services but, along with Latino children, made fewer hospital-based crisis stabilization visits after an initial visit. CONCLUSIONS: African American children used both kinds of crisis services more than did White children, and Asian Americans/Pacific Islander and American Indians/Alaska Native children visited only when they experienced the most disruptive and troubling kind of crises, and made nonrecurring visits.