Faculty Publications

Children's Mental-Health Language Access Laws: State Factors Influence Policy Adoption

Document Type

Article

Keywords

Children's language laws, Equitable healthcare access, Limited English proficiency, Mental-health public policy, Multivariate regression analysis

Journal/Book/Conference Title

Administration and Policy in Mental Health and Mental Health Services Research

Volume

40

Issue

5

First Page

364

Last Page

370

Abstract

Despite federal legislation to equalize healthcare for children with limited English language proficiency, some state healthcare agencies and programs fall short in providing children's linguistic services for mental healthcare. While some states have been aggressive in passing cultural and linguistic laws aimed at providing protection for children, other states have not, limiting children of all ages to potential substandard care. This research uses state-level data and multivariate regression analysis to explore why some states are adopting these laws, whereas others are not. We find two dissimilar forces with unrelated goals must work in tandem to bring about policy change - the desire of civil rights and liberty groups to ensure equality in the delivery of healthcare services, and the desire of state legislature to reduce healthcare costs. © 2012 Springer Science+Business Media, LLC.

Department

Department of Political Science

Original Publication Date

9-1-2013

DOI of published version

10.1007/s10488-012-0428-6

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