Analyzing the Disparity Between Those that Show Need for Mental Health Services and Those that Utilize Mental Health Services in Nueces County

In 2020, the Texas Statewide Behavioral Health Coordinating Council revealed its vision to ensure that Texas has a unified approach to the delivery of behavioral health services that highlighted access to appropriate care at the right time and place. In the same year, Nueces County received the results of a comprehensive behavioral health community needs assessment. The information collected provided a strong foundation on how to address service needs from a stakeholder perspective but lacked the view from the possible user of services. In this project, we propose to complete a descriptive cross-sectional survey of the residents of Nueces County, Corpus Christi and gather information on the community’s understanding and utilization of behavioral health services. Further, we aim to identify if social determinants of health impact understanding and/or utilization of behavioral health services. The goal of the project is to obtain information that can be utilized by stakeholders engaged in behavioral health for improving access and utilization of services. Similar research has been done, most of it focusing on students or student athletes, but not many studies have focused on the general public. A survey tool was utilized to assess the community in relation to understanding and utilization. The survey was offered in high-traffic areas including, but limited to health fairs, churches, community events, and on-campus events at TAMUCC and Del Mar. The results of the survey were categorized by gender, age, race/ethnicity, annual income, whether the participant has health insurance, and other aspects. The data collected by this service will offer an unbiased perspective into the accessibility of mental health services in Nueces County to the stakeholders of the county that can implement the changes necessary to fight this known disparity. The data showed that it was more a lack of information that caused the need/usage disparity. With that in mind, the best course of action to reducing the need/usage disparity is making the local services offered in Nueces County more well-known and better available.