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State survey shows high ratings for access to mental‑health services, identifies areas for outcomes improvement
Summary
Jeff Wilkins presented results from the 2025 perceptions‑of‑care survey—about 7,778 responses across four LME‑MCOs—finding high ratings for access (over 90%) and treatment planning but more room for improvement on outcomes and functioning, with telehealth use reported by roughly 41% of adult respondents.
Jeff Wilkins, a patient‑reported outcomes analyst with the division’s quality and evaluation team, presented the 2025 perceptions‑of‑care survey during the DHHS webinar and described both the survey’s scope and key trends.
"Last year, we collected over 7,778 surveys, across the four LME‑MCOs," Wilkins said, noting the confidential, voluntary survey includes adult, youth and child/family samples (about 4,000 adults, ~1,000 youth and 540 child respondents). The survey fulfills SAMHSA reporting requirements tied to the community mental health block grant.
Wilkins said responses across domains showed mostly positive assessments over a 10‑year comparison window (2016–2025). He reported roughly a 96% combined agree/strongly‑agree rating on access items and a 92% positive rating for treatment planning; outcomes and functioning showed lower scores, indicating areas for improvement.
The presenter also highlighted telehealth findings: about 41.2% of adult respondents reported using telehealth or teletherapy in the prior six months, with higher utilization among some youth respondents. When asked whether telehealth was helpful compared with in‑person care, most respondents rated it as more helpful or similarly helpful, though youth and child family respondents tended to report lower helpfulness ratings. Wilkins identified the most common obstacles to telehealth as lack of provider offerings, preference for in‑person care, discomfort with technology and appointment timing conflicts.
Wilkins said the division reports these results annually to SAMHSA and that North Carolina compares favorably with national averages on several domains (he cited a 93.6% positive rating for access in North Carolina compared with 87.5% nationwide for the adult sample).
