Greene County officials, school leaders and child-welfare staff raise alarm over mental-health access after high child-fatality rates

Greene County commissioners heard extended public comment and agency testimony Wednesday highlighting gaps in local mental-health services for children and families and the county’s high infant and child fatality rates.

Emily Bach, who oversees the fetal, infant and child fatality review program for Greene County and six neighboring counties, told the commission that “Greene County does have, a mental health crisis. It is literally killing our children.” Bach presented county-level figures she said were drawn from reviews and regional comparisons, saying Greene County’s infant mortality rate from 2018–2022 was 7.9 and the child fatality rate was 7.7, both high in the South Central region. She also said 52 percent of child removals were linked to parental substance use and that the county’s suicide rate was “19 24” as presented to the board.

The data supported similar accounts from local child-welfare and school officials. Sean McBride, director of the Greene County office of the Indiana Department of Child Services, said the county has seen a decline in therapists and high turnover at Hamilton Center, the county’s community…