Access to Mental Health Services and Family Burden of Rural Children with Significant Mental Health Problems

Policies can and should be developed to better meet the mental health needs of these children and provide the support needed by their families. However, a major limitation is the lack of research on how well the needs of children with SED are currently being met in rural areas. Additionally, although there are reasons to believe the burden these problems place on families is higher in rural areas, evidence to support this assumption is limited. We also lack information about how different factors, such as child's age or family work status, affect how well the needs of children and their families are met across the rural continuum.
Methods: The National Survey of Children with Special Health Care Needs (NS-CSHCN) and information on community characteristics from the Area Resource File (ARF) provide rich data sources to describe these interrelationships and to examine the determinants of whether children and their families have their needs meet across the rural continuum. Using the NS-CSHCN and the ARF, we will address following research questions: