Several indicators of youth and adolescent health have improved in Boone County, according to this year’s Annual Report on Services for Children, Youth and Adolescents. But the findings suggest the community still faces challenges.
The report shows child poverty, child food insecurity and households burdened by housing costs have all decreased across Boone County since 2014. Child poverty for children under seven years old has fallen by nearly 50% since 2014.
But mental and behavioral health hospitalizations for youth and adolescents rose nearly 25% from 2014 to 2020, and unintentional deaths, homicides and suicides among teens saw a 15% increase in the same time frame.
Data from the Kids Count Data Center shows that the number of children diagnosed with anxiety and depression has slightly risen since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, with 16% of all children in Missouri being diagnosed with one or both of those conditions.
The increase in youth and adolescent mental health hospitalizations coincides with a nationwide shortage of youth psychiatric hospital beds. A 2024 study from Northwestern University found that while youth mental health is worsening nationwide, hospitals have not expanded bed space to accommodate the influx of patients.
Joanne Nelson is the director for the Boone County Community Services Department and says the organization cannot financially support inpatient psychiatric services.
“It’s the way the statute is written,” Nelson says. “Unfortunately, we can only fund prevention services or intervention services to help with those psychiatric cases.”
Nelson said the new report will help Boone County providers better address youth and adolescent mental health through counseling and other outpatient services.
The report also shows that licensed infant and early child care capacity in Boone County fell 17% from 2014 to 2022, compared to a 27% decrease in Missouri as a whole.
Boone County has 83 licensed child care facilities, including 58 offering infant and early childhood care. Those facilities combined have the capacity to care for 156 out of every thousand children in Boone County, down from 189 in 2014.
