MADISON — July is Disability Pride Month, a time to honor the history and achievements of the disability community, but also a time to examine their experiences and struggles. Children with disabilities — whether physical, intellectual, or developmental — have higher rates of mental health conditions than children without disabilities. The mental health conditions have a significant, lasting, and negative impact on their lives. These children with the most needs also tend to be the most underserved by our care system.
One in five kids has a special health care need, whether autism, asthma, diabetes, epilepsy, learning disabilities, speech or language impairments, or intellectual and developmental disabilities. Children and youth with special health care needs (CYSHCN) require more care than other children, but data show they are five times more likely to forego care than children without special health care needs, due to difficulties finding the right care. Further complicating the care of these children, more than half of CYSHCN also have a mental health condition.
The fact sheet includes a number of recommendations for how parents, medical providers, policymakers, schools and communities can help connect CYSHCN to services and improve outcomes for these children and their families.
“For years I’ve heard from parents who are incredibly stressed and at the point of exhaustion by the obstacles facing their child with special health needs. Often their child has multiple conditions and they can’t find the right kind of help for their child’s mental health concerns,” OCMH Director Linda Hall said.
Insights from parents who participate in OCMH’s Collective Impact Council attest to the complexities of raising a child with disabilities as well as the interplay between their disability and their mental health. The amount of bullying, harassment, exclusion, and isolation these children experience leads to increased rates of anxiety and depression that parents have to deal with 24/7.
“Schools play an important role in supporting the mental health of kids with disabilities, although schools lack adequate funding to provide all the support parents might like from them,” Director Hall said. “The need for more staffing and training to support students with disabilities is evident given that students with disabilities, especially elementary school students, are most likely to experience seclusion and restraint.”
As students with disabilities get older, there are continuing challenges and new barriers that need to be addressed at school and after they have exited high school. Students with disabilities should have mental health care plans embedded into their transition planning.
“Finding a mental health professional is difficult these days, but finding one who can address the mental health issues of a non-verbal child with autism is doubly difficult,” Director Hall said.
Policymakers can provide relief by expanding compensation for the caregiving workforce and by supporting the Family Caregiver Tax Credit, which would alleviate stress on families.
Post-secondary programs could offer training on how to provide mental health care to youth with disabilities. Many mental health professionals lack the training and background on how to best serve this population.
Communities can help by designing spaces that are accessible to all children. Playgrounds with wheelchair accessible swings, libraries and museums with quiet spaces or calming sensory spaces, and public events that offer noise-reducing headphones are examples of helpful actions we can take to support children with disabilities.
Wisconsin Office of Children’s Mental Health complete fact sheet highlights, July 2024
WHY THIS MATTERS
Children with disabilities — whether physical, intellectual, or developmental — have higher rates of mental health conditions than children without disabilities. The mental health conditions have a significant, lasting, and negative impact on their lives. These children with the most needs also tend to be the most underserved by our care system.
WHAT’S HAPPENING IN WISCONSIN?
Students with disabilities represent 15% of Wisconsin’s student population, but 80% of all seclusion and 78% of all restraint cases in schools. The vast majority of seclusion and restraint incidents involve young children in elementary schools.
Children with special health care needs in Wisconsin face challenges at two to three times the rate of children without special health care needs. Two-thirds of CYSHCN are not flourishing (a measure of well-being); most have difficulty receiving treatment; and most are bullied. They tend not to be engaged in school and many families report not having proper coordination of medical care for their child, adding to the enormous stress that parents endure. These children are five times as likely to forgo health care as those without special health needs.
WHAT THE RESEARCH SAYS
Approximately 20% of all kids have a special health care need. These needs can include autism, asthma, diabetes, epilepsy, learning disabilities, speech or language impairments, or intellectual and developmental disabilities. Children and youth with special health care needs (CYSHCN) require more care than other children. In addition to their special health care needs, more than half (56%) of CYSHCN have a mental health condition. Children with an intellectual or developmental disability often experience social challenges and may lack the ability to communicate the stress around their challenges, resulting in elevated rates of anxiety and depression. Recent data reveal nearly 40% of children with ADHD also have anxiety. People with autism are three times more likely to attempt or die by suicide than those without autism. Children with disabilities often face high rates of bullying, social exclusion, and other traumatic experiences such as seclusion and restraint at school — all of which negatively impact mental health. Older kids with disabilities are not being prepared to transition to life after high school. Just 22% of youth with special needs ages 12-17 receive transition planning services for their adult health care. By their high school years, students with disabilities are much more likely to drop out compared to students without disabilities, resulting in lifelong impacts.