Despite national health insurance coverage in Taiwan, many health care needs remain unmet. In the current study, the behavior and emotional problems of 1,042 disabled children in special education programs were evaluated using the Chinese version of the Child Behavior Checklist (CBCL-C) and the Teacher's Report Form (TRF). Using the 60th percentile on the two tests as a cutoff representing a clinical indication, students who reached this cutoff point but did not receive mental health services in the past six months were considered to have “unmet mental health needs.” Of the special education students in the study 73.9% reached clinical indications, but did not receive mental health care.
Get full access to this article
View all access options for this article.
References
1.
Abe-KimJ.TakeuchiD.HwangW. C. (2002) Predictors of help seeking for emotional distress among Chinese Americans: family matters. Journal of Consulting & Clinical Psychology, 70, 1186–1190.
2.
AchenbachT. M. (1991) Manual for the Child Behavior Checklist/4-18 and 1991 profile. Burlington, VT: Univer. of Vermont, Department of Psychiatry.
3.
AlegriaM.CaninoG.LaiS.RamirezR. R.ChavezL.RuschD.ShroutP. E. (2004) Understanding caregiver's help seeking for Latino children's mental health care use. Medical Care, 42, 447–455.
4.
BussingR.ZimaB. T.PerwienA. R.BelinT. R.WidawskiM. (1998) Children in special education programs: Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder, use of services, and unmet needs. American Journal of Public Health, 88, 880–885.
5.
ChenH.KramerE. J.ChenT.ChuangH. (2005) Engaging Asian Americans for mental health research: challenges and solutions. Journal of Immigrant Health, 7, 109–116.
6.
GarrisonW. T.EarlsF. (1985) The Child Behavior Checklist as a screening instrument for young children. Journal of the American Academy of Childhood and Adolescent Psychiatry, 24, 76–80.
7.
HwangH. L.ChuangS. F.WangY. C. (1993) [The development of a multiaxial child behavior checklist in Taiwan]. Annual Report, National Science Council, [in Chinese]
8.
KataokaS. H.ZhangL.WellsK. B. (2002) Unmet need for mental health care among US children: variation by ethnicity and insurance status. American Journal of Psychiatry, 9, 1548–1555.
9.
KimK. M.CheungE. (1999) Mental health issues for Asian Americans. Psychiatric Services, 50, 774–780.
10.
KimerlingR.BaumrindN. (2005) Access to specialty mental health services among women in California. Psychological Services, 56, 729–734.
11.
LiaoC. C.ChangY. K.ChenH. H.LuC. Y.HuangL. Y.SungF. C. (2006) Knowledge and use of antibiotics among people in Taiwan. Taiwan Journal of Public Health, 25, 135–142. [in Chinese]
12.
NewacheckP. W.McManusM.FoxH. B.HungY. Y.HalfonN. (2000) Access to health care for children with special health care needs. Pediatrics, 105, 760–766.
13.
PihlakoskiL.AromaaM.SouranderA.RautavaP.HeleniusH.SillanpaaM. (2004) Use and need for professional help for emotional and behavioral problems among preadolescents: a prospective cohort study of 3- to 12-year-old children. Journal of American Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, 43, 974–982.
14.
TsaiM. H.LeeH. Y.HuangC. H. (2004) The clinical characteristics and help seeking behavior of children with hyperkinetic syndrome. Special Education Quarterly, 3, 8–12. [in Chinese]
15.
Van DyckP. C.KoganM. D.McPhersonM. G.WeissmanG. R.NewacheckP. W. (2004) Prevalence and characteristics of children with special health care needs. Archives of Pediatric and Adolescent Medicine, 158, 884–890.
16.
YangH. J.SoongW. T.ChiangC. N.ChenW. J. (2000) Competence and behavioral/emotional problems among Taiwanese adolescents as reported by parents and teachers. Journal of American Academy of Childhood and Adolescent Psychiatry, 2, 232–239.
