Adequate Care Coordination is Associated with Reduced Unmet Mental Health Needs for Children

Children with special healthcare needs (CSHCN), especially those with mental health needs, often receive services from multiple service sectors, including schools. Thus, care coordination may play a critical role in access to mental health care for these children. This pooled cross-sectional study used multivariable logistic regression with data from the National Survey of Children’s Health (2020-2023), focusing on a subsample of children with caregiver-reported mental health problems and need for mental healthcare. It estimates the prevalence of parent-reported need for and receipt of effective care coordination and provider communication with schools. It also measures the association between parent-reported receipt of these services with unmet need for mental healthcare. Most caregivers reported need for care coordination (51.3%) and provider communication with schools (60.7%). Among those with need, 48.3% reported not having their care coordination needs met, and 57.2% of families reported unmet need for provider communication with schools. The probability of reported unmet mental health needs was 12 percentage points lower when children had all needs for care coordination met and 10 points lower when providers communicated with schools. Results suggest that having care coordination needs met and provider communication with schools may play an important role in children accessing needed mental healthcare.