Too Few Child Psychiatrists

In a topic related to the general crisis of inadequate health care in this country, Joseph over at The Corpus Callosum makes us aware of another problem that is under-reported; a severe shortage of child psychiatrists.

The Los Angeles Times today has an article about the state of mental health care for children and adolescents in the USA. A while back, I wrote that the undersupply of qualified mental health care professionals serving children is a national disgrace. The LAT confirms that this has not changed.

He quotes this excerpt from the LA Times story:

About 15 million U.S. children ages 9 to 17 are thought to have a serious mental or addictive disorder — such as depression, anxiety, attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), eating disorders, early onset schizophrenia or bipolar disorder. [...]

But only about 7,500 child psychiatrists are currently practicing in the United States — and only 300 new child and adolescent psychiatrists complete training each year. The profession — the only board-certified medical specialty that trains physicians to treat mental disorders in children and teens — is experiencing one of the most severe labor shortages among all medical specialties.

Joseph goes on to say:

As an aside, I would like to point out that there is no easy answer to this. Increasing the supply of child psychiatrists without also increasing the supply of the other child workers would necessarily lead to an overemphasis on medication treatment, to the exclusion of psychosocial interventions. It is pretty obvious that if a kid is neglected or abused at home, underserved in school, hungry, and otherwise disadvantaged, putting the kid on a medication is not going to do a whole lot of good.

There is no easy answer. But simply bringing attention to the problem, with the help of reporters and faithful bloggers, is a start.