ANDERSON — Many Indiana adults are struggling with substance abuse and mental health issues, and that's affecting the well-being of children who live with them, according to a report being released today.
About 13.4 percent of Indiana's children have lived with someone who has a drug or alcohol problem. That's higher than the national figure of 10.7 percent.
While a 2.7 percentage point difference doesn't seem like much, it's enough to give Indiana the 12th highest rate in the nation, according to data compiled in the 2016 KIDS COUNT Data Book from the Indiana Youth Institute.
What's more, one in 20 Hoosiers have a serious mental illness, and more than one in 10 children have lived with someone who was mentally ill, a figure also higher than the national rate of 8.6 percent.
In many cases, the two issues go hand-in-hand, which can create serious problems for children, say experts.
"As we see drug and alcohol abuse on the rise across the state of Indiana, we have to worry about the children who do live in those homes," said Glenn Augustine, interim president and CEO of the institute.
What's happening all too often is this: 16 of 1,000 children are abused or neglected.
"That means about once every 20 minutes, a child is abused or neglected in Indiana, and about half of those children are below the age of five, so our most vulnerable children are often the most likely to be abused or neglected," Augustine said.
And those circumstances can lead to long-term physical or psychological problems that can carry into adulthood.
At the same time, receiving mental health treatment in Indiana can be difficult to find and pay for, according to the institute. There is one mental health provider for every 750 people on average. But in some, mostly rural Hoosier counties, there's just one provider per 14,000 people.
In Indiana, one in 20 children suffer from a serious behavior or conduct problem (5.3%), 4 percent struggle with anxiety and 3.1 percent have experienced depression. Those are higher than the national rates of 3.2 percent, 3.3 percent and 2.2 percent, respectively.
The manufacture and use of methamphetamine, or meth, remains at epidemic levels throughout the state. In fact, Indiana had the highest number of meth incidents in the country where police bust a lab, find a dump site, or seize equipment and ingredients to make the illegal substance.
There were 1,471 incidents in the state in 2014, according to the institute. While that number is lower than in 2013, children are still in danger when they are near these meth labs.
In 2014, 362 Hoosier children were identified in clandestine lab environments. Since 2000, two children have died and 20 others have been hurt in Indiana meth labs.
However, there have been improvements in some areas of child well-being, the institute reports.
Indiana's teen birth rate for girls ages 15 to 17 is currently at the lowest level ever recorded, said Julie Whitman, vice president of programs at the institute.
"That's good news," Whitman said. She added that the number of abortions in Indiana are also down "so we know that truly fewer teens are having babies."
Another bright spot is in education.
The National Assessment of Educational Progress test, often referred to as the "Nation's Report Card," shows that for the first time ever, more than half of Indiana's fourth-graders who took the NEAP test were proficient in both reading and math.