Iowa Poll: 77 percent support universal mental health screening for kids
Tony Leys©Copyright 2019, Des Moines Register and Tribune Co.
More than three-quarters of Iowans support a proposal to routinely screen children for mental health issues, a new Des Moines Register/Mediacom Iowa Poll shows.
Seventy-seven percent of Iowa adults favor a universal mental health screening program for children, with a provision allowing parents to opt their kids out of it. Just 15 percent oppose the proposal, and 8 percent are unsure.
The screening proposal was included last fall in a sweeping plan to improve mental health services for Iowa’s children. The governor's office introduced parts of the plan this week as bills in the House and Senate. The screening proposal is not spelled out in the bills, but it could be added later.
Okpara Rice, a mental health professional from Cedar Rapids who was not among those polled, was thrilled to learn that so many Iowans support the screening idea.
“That shows we are doing a good job of reducing stigma around mental health for children,” he said. “People are saying, ‘This is OK. I want to get my kids checked.’”
The screening proposal is supported by 76 percent of Republicans, 82 percent of Democrats and 75 percent of political independents. It is popular among Iowa adults of every age group, income bracket, religious affiliation and education level, the poll shows.
The Iowa Poll was taken before the governor's office introduced the children's mental health bill, which does not include the screening proposal.
The poll of 803 Iowa adults was conducted Feb. 10-13 by Selzer & Co. It has a margin of error of plus or minus 3.5 percentage points.
About the screening
Rice said the screening proposal might have faced more public skepticism a few years ago. Many people falsely assume that their loved ones could never experience problems such as depression, addiction and suicide, he said. Those attitudes are shifting as families talk publicly about mental health struggles, he said.
Rice is chief executive officer of Tanager Place, which offers counseling and other treatment for children. He serves on a state board of professionals, officials and parents that the governor appointed last year to draw up a plan for legislators to consider.
Rice said screenings could start as soon as next school year if state officials focused on getting them started. He also wants to see prompt action on other parts of the state board's plan, including expansion of treatment options.
Parents need to know that if their children are identified during screening as possibly having depression, anxiety or other problems, they will be referred to a professional who can help, Rice said.
“Screening tools are useless if you don’t have services in place,” he said. Such services are particularly scarce in rural Iowa, and it could take years to strengthen them sufficiently, he added.
The state committee did not specify in its proposal where the mental health screenings would take place, who would perform them or what questions they would contain. Rice said several widely used screening tools are available, often consisting of about 10 questions. They can be performed in schools or in clinics, he said.
Some Iowans wary of screening idea
Although the Iowa Poll shows strong support for the screening idea, it also shows some Iowans are wary.
Poll participant Jeannette Howell, 83, of Williamsburg does not favor having the government set up universal screening of children for mental health issues. “I think that should be up to the parents to be doing, not the state,” she said.
Howell, who retired from the financial department of University of Iowa Hospitals, said supporters of the screening proposal have good motives. But instead of asking all children questions about their mental health, she would prefer having trained school counselors consult regularly with classroom teachers about how their students are behaving. If the counselors and teachers notice an issue, they should contact parents and let them help arrange care, Howell said.
Michelle Pedersen, 49, of Cherokee supports the idea of regular mental health screenings of Iowa children. Pedersen, a disabled veteran and poll respondent, said such screenings could help catch problems early, before children have crises, she said.
Like many Iowans, Pedersen said she has family members who have had mental health struggles. She likes the idea of offering mental health screenings to all Iowa families. But she said it’s important to let parents opt their kids out if they’re uncomfortable with the idea.
“I think it should be the family’s decision,” she said. “I don’t think kids should have to do it and the parents would have to just stand by.”
In the poll, Iowans were asked about the screening and told that “parents could opt out.”
Mary Neubauer of Clive, a prominent advocate for improved mental health services, was pleased to hear of the Iowa Poll’s findings.
Neubauer lost her teenage son, Sergei, to suicide in 2017, and she is a member of the state committee the governor assigned to write the plan.
Neubauer said the poll results show Iowans are getting the message that mental health should be looked at in the same way as physical health. Mental health screenings should be viewed as a standard precaution, she said.
“Really, from my perspective, it’s a health screening — like a vision screening, a hearing screening or a dental screening,” she said. “It’s not something to be afraid of.”
About this poll
The Iowa Poll, conducted Feb. 10-13 for The Des Moines Register and Mediacom by Selzer & Co. of Des Moines, is based on telephone interviews with 803 Iowans ages 18 or older. Interviewers with Quantel Research contacted households with randomly selected landline and cellphone numbers supplied by Survey Sampling International. Interviews were administered in English. Responses were adjusted by age, sex, and congressional district to reflect the general population based on recent census data.
Questions based on the sample of 803 Iowa adults have a maximum margin of error of plus or minus 3.5 percentage points. This means that if this survey were repeated using the same questions and the same methodology, 19 times out of 20, the findings would not vary from the true population value by more than plus or minus 3.5 percentage points. Results based on smaller samples of respondents — such as by gender or age — have a larger margin of error.
Republishing the copyright Iowa Poll without credit to The Des Moines Register and Mediacom is prohibited.
Iowa Poll methodology