Addressing the health and mental health needs of unaccompanied immigrant youth through an innovative school-based health center model: Successes and challenges

Unaccompanied immigrant youth (UIY) have traveled from Central America and Mexico across the US Mexico border for many years, seeking work or education, reunifying with immigrant parents and fleeing violence in their home countries. However, in response to rising levels of violence in Central Americ...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:	Children and youth services review Vol. 92; pp. 133 - 142
Main Authors:	Schapiro, Naomi A., Gutierrez, J. Raul, Blackshaw, Amy, Chen, Jyu-Lin
Format:	Journal Article
Language:	English
Published:	Oxford Elsevier Ltd 01-09-2018 Elsevier Science Ltd
Subjects:	Adolescent Adolescent psychology Borders Community mental health services Destinations Health behavior Health facilities Health insurance Health needs Hispanic Americans Immigrants Immigration Immigration and emigration Immigration policy Indigenous languages Indigenous peoples Latinos/Latinas Medical screening Medicine Mental health services Newcomers Parenthood education Parents & parenting Psychology Teenagers Tests Tracking Unaccompanied Unaccompanied immigrant minors Urban schools Violence Vulnerability Youth Central America United States > US Mexico Latinos/Latinas Unaccompanied immigrant minors Adolescent psychology Immigration and emigration Adolescent
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Summary:	Unaccompanied immigrant youth (UIY) have traveled from Central America and Mexico across the US Mexico border for many years, seeking work or education, reunifying with immigrant parents and fleeing violence in their home countries. However, in response to rising levels of violence in Central America, this number dramatically increased, and over 120,000 UIY have come to the United States (US) from these countries since Fiscal Year (FY) 2014. California has been one of the top three destinations for resettled youth in the US, and a large urban school district in Northern California enrolled 2200 newcomers in the 2016–2017 academic year, of whom 289 are identified as unaccompanied minors. The majority of UIY in this district are from Guatemala, many of them speaking Mam or another indigenous language, instead of Spanish. With the support of community and academic partners, a school-based health center administered by a Federally Qualified Health Center developed a plan for outreach, systematic screening and referral to services for newcomer youth. Of 56 youth screened in Fall 2015, 44% were referred to behavioral health services, and 64.2% had follow-up medical visits within six months. Successes and challenges of working with this vulnerable population and tracking care are discussed. •Newcomers had higher rates of behavioral health usage than other clinic users.•Unaccompanied and detained youth had few differences in health needs from other newcomers.•Only 16.7% of newcomers had completed their immunizations on the screening date.•Newcomers named academics, sports, family and optimism as adaptation supports.•A classroom-level confidential health screen was effective in increasing access to care.
ISSN:	0190-7409 1873-7765
DOI:	10.1016/j.childyouth.2018.04.016