Broadening the Reach of Mental Health Care

Ford Fellow Yesenia Aguilar Silvan studies how to connect young people with the help they need

About one in every six children between the ages of 6 and 17 in the U.S. has depression, anxiety, or another treatable mental health disorder, an analysis of data from the 2016 National Survey of Children’s Health concluded.

But many children and teens don’t get the treatment they need. About half of the young people who have been diagnosed and told that they would benefit from mental health services never get in the door for a first session, explains Yesenia Aguilar Silvan, a first-year doctoral student in clinical psychology at the University of...