# Distribution of Child Mental Health Workforce and Health Care for Children with Autism

> **NIH NIH R01** · HARVARD PILGRIM HEALTH CARE, INC. · 2020 · $299,048

## Abstract

ABSTRACT
 It has become an increasingly important public health issue to meet the needs of children with autism
and other autism-spectrum disorders (ASDs), which are complex developmental disorders characterized by
repetitive behavior and delayed social interaction and communication. Studies have indicated that the
prevalence of ASDs among children has more than doubled during the past decade. Recent studies have also
found substantial unmet mental health (MH) care needs among children with ASDs. While multiple factors
contribute to the unmet needs, one important contributing factor is likely an insufficient child MH workforce,
especially a “critical shortage” of child psychiatrists. Yet no work has been done to understand whether MH
care is more accessible and patient experience and satisfaction are better for children with autism in areas with
higher supply of child MH workforce than in those areas with lower supply.
 To fill the gap, this study is designed to provide timely empirical evidence of the consequences of child
MH workforce supply on MH care for children with autism. Our specific aims are:
 Aim 1. Examine the relationship between the child MH workforce supply, by discipline, and access to,
utilization of, and experience and satisfaction with mental health care for children with autism.
 Aim 2. Examine the relationship between the child MH workforce supply, by discipline, and family burden
of children with autism.
 Aim 3. Examine whether the effects of child mental health workforce supply on mental health care
access, satisfaction, and family burden differ by race and ethnicity or between rural and urban residence.
 The proposed project is innovative because (1) unlike previous studies, we will examine the supply of
multiple disciplines simultaneously, and (2) our structural, econometric model of physician entry and market
structure is explicitly causal, thus providing an answer to the most common objections to the methods typically
used in the previous studies of association between physician supply and geographic variations in health care.
 The proposed research is highly significant for multiple reasons. First, without an adequate supply of MH
providers, the current efforts to strengthen the public health impact of NIMH supported dissemination of
research-tested interventions would not be able to achieve optimal effects. Second, some experts have called
for more empirical studies of the challenging issue of insufficient and maldistributed supply of child MH
workforce. This proposed study responds to the call, and it will generate empirical evidence that will provide
policymakers critical information as they address this challenging issue. To our knowledge, the proposed
project will be the first to assess how MH workforce supply affects mental health care access, satisfaction and
family burden for children with autism. It will also be the first study to examine whether MH workforce supply
ameliorates or exacerbates existing disparit...

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 10017322
- **Project number:** 5R01MH112760-04
- **Recipient organization:** HARVARD PILGRIM HEALTH CARE, INC.
- **Principal Investigator:** HAO YU
- **Activity code:** R01 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2020
- **Award amount:** $299,048
- **Award type:** 5
- **Project period:** 2019-08-15 → 2022-06-30

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/10017322

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 10017322, Distribution of Child Mental Health Workforce and Health Care for Children with Autism (5R01MH112760-04). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-23 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/10017322. Licensed CC0.

---

*[NIH grants dataset](/datasets/nih-grants) · CC0 1.0*