Caring for Kids Brochures

Children's Mental Health Care Needs: Real, Common, and Treatable

A 2001 report from the U.S. Surgeon General stresses that mental health is critical to children’s learning and general health—as important as immunizations to ensuring that every child has the best chance for a healthy start in life. An estimated 21 percent of young people in the United States between ages 9 and 17, about 15 million children, have diagnosable emotional or behavioral health disorders, but less than a third get help for these problems. More needs to be done to get mental health services to children in need and prevent problems for kids at risk.

Over the past 30 years, schools—partnering with community-based health and mental health organizations and individuals—have become the largest providers of mental health services to children. Among those children who receive mental health services, up to 80 percent get their care at school. While many of these children and adolescents receive services by participating in special education programs, an increasing number are getting help through the nation’s nearly 2,000 comprehensive school-based health centers. This brochure describes the work of grantees participating in the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation’s Caring for Kids grant initiative.

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School-Based Dental Care: Spreading Smiles through Schools

The 2000 Surgeon General’s report describes oral health in the United States as a “silent epidemic of dental and oral diseases.” That epidemic is hitting America’s children hard. In fact, tooth decay is the most common childhood disease in the United States—occurring five times more often than asthma and seven times more often than hay fever.  Left untreated, oral diseases in children can cause serious health problems and pain.  It is estimated that more than 51 million school hours are lost each year to dental-related illness. While an estimated 5 percent of children under 18 have untreated dental problems, that percentage rises to 39 percent for African American children and 60 percent for Mexican American children.

In 2001, the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation established the Caring for Kids grant initiative to increase the number of children with access to dental and mental health services by offering those services in school-based health centers. The school-based health centers in the Caring for Kids program offer a mix of dental services, including some combination of screening, cleaning, sealants, restorative care, and classroom education. This publication describes the seven school-based dental programs.

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