The pandemic has put a unique strain on everyone's mental health, especially young people. Lockdowns, remote school, distanced relationships, grief—all have brought about increased anxiety and depression in children. The Centers for Disease Control estimated that before the pandemic one out of every five children were living with a mental health disorder, and that just a fraction of them them were receiving care from a specialized provider.
The CDC estimates that
80% of children and adolescents
living with a mental health disorder
like anxiety or depression
never recieve treatment.
The CDC estimates that
80% of children and adolescents
living with a mental health disorder
like anxiety or depression
never recieve treatment.
Clinical psychologists are one of a few important specialized providers who can diagnose and treat mental health issues. How accessible are these providers to the nearly 1.3 million children who rely on Medicaid in New York City?
1 psychologist
Source: health.data.ny.gov “Medicaid Enrolled Provider Listing” as of March 2022
While New York City has the highest concentration of child psychologists in the state, it is also home to half of all children on New York Medicaid.
If you were to divide those 47 psychologists among the almost 1.3 million children and teenagers on Medicaid in the city, it would look something like this.
1 child & adolescent psychologist for every:
125 children
2,000 children
4,000 children
6,000 children
8,000 children
10,000 children
12,000 children
14,000 children
16,000 children
18,000 children
20,000 children
22,000 children
24,000 children
26,000 children
27,500 children
Source: health.data.ny.gov “Medicaid Program Enrollment by Month Beginning 2009”
Aug. 2021 enrollment
1 child & adolescent psychologist
for every:
125 children
2,000 children
4,000 children
6,000 children
8,000 children
10,000 children
12,000 children
14,000 children
16,000 children
18,000 children
20,000 children
22,000 children
24,000 children
26,000 children
27,500 children
Source: health.data.ny.gov “Medicaid Program Enrollment
by Month Beginning 2009” | Aug. 2021 enrollment
That's one child and adolescent psychologist for every 27,500+ young people on Medicaid. And New York City only has the fourth worst rate of every economic region in the state. Mohawk Valley, for example, has only one child psychologist for the 58,000 children on Medicaid in the entire region.
Methodology
I cross referenced the New York State Medicaid provider database with the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid NPI directory. I checked every NPI number listed as "clinical psychologist" in the New York Medicaid directory, and tallied the providers listing "child and adolescent psychology" as their primary taxonomy.
To get a rate of providers for the children on Medicaid in a region, I used the most recent New York Medicaid enrollee data (August 2021) broken down by economic region and age group. Children constituted enrollees ages 0-20.