Mental Health Facts
Mental health is essential to personal well being, and
is fundamental to leading a healthy, balanced, and productive life. Signs
of mental health include successful thought processes, resulting in productive
activities, fulfilling relationships, and the ability to adapt to change
and cope with adversity. Mental illnesses, also known as psychiatric illnesses,
disrupt the ill person's thought process, disrupting life, activities,
relationships, and coping and thriving abilities. Mental illness was once
a terrifying diagnosis, but today many people can and do recover, and
go on to live vital, thriving lives.
Today, we understand so much more about mental health
and mental illness than we did even ten years ago! With today's treatment
options, what was only a hope in the past is becoming a reality. Nearly
80% of individuals stricken with a mental illness can become well again
with the proper treatment. We know how important it is for the ill person
to be a central part of making decisions about their own needs, and to
be given the very real hope that they will get better. And there continue
to be great advances in research, treatment therapies, and medication
for people.
Did You Know?
Not Investing in Mental Health Is Expensive
- The total yearly cost for mental illness in both the private and
public sector in the United States is $205 billion - but only $92
billion of that total comes from direct treatment costs. The total
cost of untreated and mistreated mental illness to American businesses,
the government, and to families is $113 billion every year.
- Employees who are depressed are twice as likely to take time off
for health reasons than employees who are not depressed, and are seven
times more likely to be less productive on the job than their counterparts.
- The success rate for treating clinical depression is nearly 80
percent.
- Treating people in communities is far less expensive than treating
them in institutions. In one recent study, the total treatment cost
per person per year, including the cost of housing, was $60,000 compared
to $130,000 for institutional care.
- Twenty percent of youths in juvenile justice facilities have a
serious emotional disturbance and have a mental disorder that can
be diagnosed. Up to an additional 30 percent of youths in these facilities
have substance abuse disorders or co-occurring mental health and substance
abuse disorders.
- On any given night, more than 600,000 people are homeless in the
United States , of which one-third have a serious mental illness.
- The World Health Organization estimates that depression and substance
abuse are associated with more than 90 percent of all suicide cases.
- According to the World Health Organization in their 1998 report,
depression will be the second greatest cause of premature death and
disability worldwide by the year 2020.
Treatment Offers a Powerful Return on Investment
- A study conducted by the American Journal of Psychiatry noted that
anti-depressant treatment reduces overall healthcare costs by more
than 70 percent.
- Comprehensive community-based mental health services for children
and adolescents can cut public hospital admissions and lengths of
stay.
- In 1996, the average cost of incarcerating an individual in a New
York City jail was approximately $63,000. In contrast, the cost of
providing community-based housing to an individual in New York City
was only $12,000 per year or $33 a day.
Mental Health Is Under-Funded
- In 1997, mental health and substance abuse expenditures represented
only 7.8% of the more than $1 trillion of all U.S. healthcare expenditures.
This is a decrease from 8.8% in 1987.
- Mental illness is the second leading cause of disability in the
United States , yet only 7% of all healthcare expenditures are designated
for mental health disorders.
Treatment Does Work If Used Appropriately
- While one in four adults will experience a serious mental disturbance
in their thoughts, feelings and ability to cope during their life-time,
only 30% of them will actually seek and carry through with treatment.
- Many adults may struggle their entire life with depression, anxiety,
or other disturbances in their mental health. Their illness will cause
them problems in their family, on their job, and with the people they
care about. It can rob them of income, security, and the successes
that would have been theirs if they had gotten help early in their
illness.
Why don't people seek the help they need?
- Mental illnesses have been with us for a very long time. For hundreds
of years, myths and untruths about mental illnesses have created distrust
and fear. Remember, people thought the world was flat in 1492. And
they treated a person stricken with mental illness as though they
were inhabited by demons.
- Even into the 1900's a person who was stricken with a mental illness,
was considered to be insane, incompetent, deranged, and could spend
their life in a mental institution, locked away and neglected, often
in dismal and horrendous conditions.
- People became frightened of talking about their concerns for their
thoughts and feelings, afraid of what might happen to them if they
told others. Family members were worried about what other people would
think if they learned that a relative was "insane". Taboos
and stigmas, myths and prejudices were viewed as real facts. Rumors
are very hard to destroy.
How Can You Help Change Things for the Better?
- Mental health associations and other national organizations made
it their mission in the late 1940's to break apart these stigmas,
myths, fears, and untruths about these illnesses and about the people
who were stricken by them.
- Without community understanding of mental illness and acceptance
of those living with mental illness, people will continue to avoid
talking about it and seeking help.
- What can you do to help? Please check out our information on Compeer,
Skill Builders, Volunteers and Community Education.
- You can learn more about specific illnesses such as depression,
bipolar, schizophrenia, anxiety, mood disorders, and other information
through the National Mental Health Association Website, www.nmha.org,
the National Alliance for the Mentally Ill Website, www.nami.org,
and the (U. S.) Substance Abuse, Mental Health Services Administration,
www.samhsa.gov/index.aspx.
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