Availability and Accessibility of Mental Health Services in New York City.

Mental health services are critical components of public health infrastructure that provide essential supports to people living with psychiatric disorders. In a typical year, about 20 percent of people will have a psychiatric disorder, and about 5 percent will experience serious psychological distress, indicating a potentially serious mental illness. Nationally, the use of mental health services is low, and the use of care is not equitably distributed. In the United States as a whole and in New York City (NYC), non-Hispanic white individuals are more likely to use mental health services than non-Hispanic black individuals or Hispanic individuals. The challenges of ensuring the availability of mental health services for all groups in NYC are particularly acute, given the size of the population and its diversity in income, culture, ethnicity, and language. Adding to these underlying challenges, the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic has disrupted established patterns of care. To advance policy strategy for addressing gaps in the mental health services system, RAND researchers investigate the availability and accessibility of mental health services in NYC. The RAND team used two complementary approaches to address these issues. First, the team conducted interviews with a broad group of professionals and patients in the mental health system to identify barriers to care and potential strategies for improving access and availability. Second, the team investigated geographic variations in the availability of mental health services by compiling and mapping data on the locations and service characteristics of mental health treatment facilities in NYC.

Bridging the Gap between Resources and Marginalized Families

In the United States, students from marginalized backgrounds historically have had gaps in their access to education, thus affecting success and overall achievement. In an attempt to address these educational gaps, researchers, school districts, and government officials have been working to provide resources for those in communities with low economic opportunities, with low levels of educational attainment, and overall defined as being marginalized. This article asks: How can parents and students be more effectively connected with the resources available to them? Then once they are effectively connected, the question remains: To what degree does this access improve students' and families' lives? It is of critical importance to go beyond offering resources, connecting families directly to the resources and documenting the changes that happen. Therefore, the authors implemented an innovative way to do so by incorporating community health and education workers (CHEWs) who can serve as liaisons between families, resources, and schools, providing health and educational outreach and advocacy. Informed by Maslow's hierarchy of need, they believe that what happens outside of the classroom directly impacts a child in the classroom;thus, helping parents and students to connect to resources more effectively ultimately prepares the child for success in the classroom. The article begins by describing who the community health and education workers (CHEWs) are. It goes on to describe how the authors worked with a low-income minority school district in Southern California with over 53,000 students placing CHEWs at schools in hopes of ultimately impacting education by reducing chronic absenteeism, increasing parental engagement, and increasing use of school district resources.