In June 2004, the National Health Policy Forum published this report: Children With Mental Disorders: Making Sense of Their Needs and the Systems That Help Them. The report is filled with bleak and eye-opening facts:

1. About one in 5 children suffers from an emotional or behavioral problem that would meet the psychiatric community's criteria for a diagnosable disorder and about one in 20 has a serious dysfunction.
2. Of children with all disabilities, those with serious emotional disturbances have the highest school drop out rates. (50% compared to 30% of all children with disabilities.)
3. They also have the highest likelihood of landing in jail. Between 60-70% of children in the juvenile justice system have a psychiatric disorder. The cost of incarceration for one year is upwards of $35,000.
4. Studies find that an estimated 70-80% of children with mental disorders do not receive care.
5. Anxiety disorders are the most common mental disorders among children ages 9-17 (13%).
6. A number of studies indicated that the prevalence for mental disorders is about the same for younger children as it is for older children, and that early identification of these disorders is significant in improving success.

The report goes on to examine the systems of care -with the school systems, through special education (IDEA) being the prominent one -- private insurance, medicaid, public health systems, child welfare and juvenile justice systems. And here's a startling stat:

In the fiscal year 2001, there were at least 12,700 cases of children placed in the custody of child welfare or juvenile justice systems so they could access needed mental health system.

My friend Nancy, over on the Reactive Attachment Disorder Blog, can tell of countless examples of adoptive parents relinquishing their children to obtain placement in residential treatment centers or other intensive therapeutic support. Parents often face legal abandonment charges for such a move - but after exhausting their private insurance, getting no help from other agencies or systems, have no other choice. This is not exclusively an adoption issue - biological parents face the same excruitating choice.

The report offers no solutions - but does present a clear view on how utterly and completely our current systems are failing children with mental and emotional disorders.