The Impact of School Closures on Service Utilization in School-Based Health Centers

Eleanor Castine Richards (), Madelyn R. Allen and Margaret Danielle Weiss ()
Additional contact information
Eleanor Castine Richards: Cambridge Health Alliance, Harvard Medical School, Cambridge, MA 02139, USA
Madelyn R. Allen: Cambridge Health Alliance, Harvard Medical School, Cambridge, MA 02139, USA
Margaret Danielle Weiss: Cambridge Health Alliance, Harvard Medical School, Cambridge, MA 02139, USA

IJERPH, 2023, vol. 20, issue 5, 1-9

Abstract: Background: The pandemic was followed by a severe mental health crisis in youth with both an increase in the prevalence of mental health problems and a decrease in requests for and access to care. Methods: data were extracted from the school-based health center records in three large public high schools that include under-resourced and immigrant communities. Data from 2018/2019 (pre-pandemic), 2020 during the pandemic, and then in 2021 after the return to in-person school were compared regarding the impact of in-person, telehealth, and hybrid care. Results: Despite the increase in mental health needs globally, there was a dramatic decrease in referrals, evaluations, and the total number of students seen for behavioral health care. The time course of this decrease in care was specifically associated with the transition to telehealth, although treatment did not return to pre-pandemic levels, even after in-person care became available. Conclusions: Despite ease of access and increased need, these data suggest that telehealth has unique limitations when delivered in school-based health centers.

Keywords: COVID-19; mental health; youth; school mental health; pandemic; access; telehealth; adolescent (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I I1 I3 Q Q5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2023
References: View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/20/5/4588/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/20/5/4588/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jijerp:v:20:y:2023:i:5:p:4588-:d:1088075

Access Statistics for this article

IJERPH is currently edited by Ms. Jenna Liu

More articles in IJERPH from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().