Mental Health: Prevalence and Healthcare Policy

 

Prevalence and Healthcare Policy

The hard truth is that mental illness occurrences are significantly higher than what is reported by research studies.  The Surgeon General expresses that very few people in a population are untouched by mental illness either directly or indirectly in their lifetime.  More importantly, mental illness is often the underlying cause of many other healthcare-related events.

Limited access to mental health care and the laws governing the privacy rights of those who have mental illness make the known prevalence challenging to ascertain.  Therefore, the research offering such information is likely only a small percentage of what the reality is.  The mental health sector does not report to the CDC, watchdog for epidemics.  There is no single agency tasked with overseeing the state of mental health in America.  Below are statistics based on what was known at the time research was conducted and should be viewed with the understanding that the numbers only represent a small fraction of the state of mental illness in America.

 

Mental Illness Statistics

Adult population, greater than 18 years old.

•              One in every four persons are affected by mental illness either directly or indirectly.

•              One in every five persons suffer from a diagnosable mental illness disorder each year.

•              Four of the ten leading causes of disability are mental illnesses that include major depression, bipolar disorder, schizophrenia, and obsessive-compulsive disorder occurring in approximately 5% of the population.

•              Roughly, 3% of the population suffer from more than one mental illness.

•              20% of all doctor’s appointments are related to severe anxiety disorders such as panic attacks.

•              Eight million people are diagnosed or treated for depression each year.

•              An estimated two million people are diagnosed with schizophrenia disorders, and 300,000 new cases are diagnosed each year.

 

Children and Adolescents under the age of 18.

•              Roughly 12-million children have mental disorders.

•              Mental illness impacts 1 in every 5 young people at any time.

•              A conservative estimate of 1 in every 33 children may suffer from depression; in adolescents, that number may be as high as 1 in 8.

•              Schizophrenia occurs in approximately 3 of every 1,000 adolescents.

•              Between 118,700 and 186,600 youths in the juvenile justice system have at least one mental illness.

•              60% of every 100,000 teenagers in juvenile detention have one or more mental illnesses.

•              It is estimated that two-thirds of young people with mental health problems are not receiving the appropriate care needed.

•              Less than one-third of the children with a severe mental health problem receive any mental health services.

•              Suicide is the third leading cause of death for 15- to 24-years old.

•              Suicide is the sixth leading cause of death for 5- to 15-years old.

 

Statistics on Mentally Ill Incarcerated

Varney, Kaiser Health News (2014)

•      In Ohio, among the 132 patients discharged from the state hospital, 17% were arrested within six months.

•      By 2006, the Department of Justice (DOJ) reported that 1 in 6 inmates in state prisons and 1 in 4 in local jails was psychotic. 

•      In-state prisons, 75% of men and 55% of women have at least one mental illness.

•      In federal prisons, 61% of women and 44% of men have at least one mental illness.

•      In local jails, 75% of women and 63% of men have at least one mental illness.

•      Ohio’s state prison population had a 43% increase in the general population between 1990 – 1996, but a 285% increase in mentally ill inmates in the same period (Mental Illness Policy.org, n.d.).

•      In a comprehensive survey of state mental healthcare systems released in 2006, the national average grade was a D.  Eight states received a grade of F, and only five states received a B (National Alliance on Mental Illness, NAMI, Sept 06, 2006).

From Institutional-based Care to Incarceration

The major shift in deinstitutionalization that occurred in the late 1960s left the most severely mentally ill patients without needed treatments and families without the resources necessary to care for them (Mental Illness Policy.org, n.d.). Deinstitutionalization, along with cost-shifting by the states to the federal government, after the advent of Medicare and Medicaid, has led to one of the most significant problems defining today’s health crisis, the criminalization of Americans with severest brain diseases. Mental illness is the underlying root cause of criminality, substance abuse disorder, and loss of life, both intentional and unintentional. Incarceration in state prisons has become the surrogate for mental healthcare in America.  In the decades following the hospital closures in the 1960s, the men and women, once institutionalized, found themselves arrested for minor offenses. 

The path to incarceration for many of those with mental illness often began with a childhood marked by trauma and poverty, witnessing violence, sexual abuse, and caregivers cycling in and out of jail.  Mental illness, like any other chronic disease process, worsens with age.  Men and women who have a mental illness eventually, turn to drugs and alcohol to soothe anxiety and depression, turning to crime and prostitution for money to support themselves and their need to find relief from the pain they endure.

 

Coming next, I will evaluate the privacy laws governing mental illness, the impact of the legislation on mental illness, and population health and highlight limited access to mental health care.  Thank you for your support.