Casper, Wyo. – For the first time ever, Children’s Hospital Colorado visited the center of Wyoming to spread awareness and work on ways to better the mental health services for our youth within the state.
“Wyoming’s prevalence rates for like death by suicide for teenagers is triple what the national average is. “Children’s Hospital Colorado’s, Chief of Psychology, Jessica Hawks says for every 1,053 students in Wyoming’s K-12 public schools, there is one school psychologist available. This ratio is worse than the recommended ratio of one school psychologist for every 500 students, which shows a lack of access. “From the onset of symptoms to accessing evidence based treatment, which 50% of kids never do, but the kids that do there’s a delay of 8 to 10 years from the onset of symptoms until you actually get access to care.”
Here in Wyoming, there are few specialized child & adolescent psychiatrists, with a ratio of only one child psychiatrist for every 22,960 children. For one of those psychiatrists, while it’s the lack of access, he believes it’s the state’s mindset that has a negative impact on our youth’s mental health. “We’re rural, we’re rugged, we want to do it on our own, and that is not very compatible with good mental health.” Cheyenne Regional Medical Center’s, Child & Adolescent Psychiatrist, Dr. Justin Romano says he finds two main things when it comes to adverse effects for our youth’s mental health in the state. One being methamphetamine use while the child is in the womb, which can cause ADHD and behavioral problems and the other is technology and screen time. “I think that is this generations smoking, where meth causes a lot more of the extreme cases – but screens and technology causes probably casts a wider net and catches more kids.”
Romano explains we as a state need to shift our thinking on mental health, and hopes this first ever symposium can be the start of that shift. “I’m always hoping that young people see me and what I’m doing and say, hey I might want to go into psychiatry or child psychiatry someday, the more we collaborate and the more we talk usually the more we go in the right direction.”