Support Issue 10 Lake County ADAMHS Board Levy

 




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Lake County ADAMHS Board

YOU.ME.US We're in this together. There is no them.


Mental Health is the Top Healthcare Concern of Americans

A 2023 Ipsos survey has found that mental health is now the chief health concern among U.S. adults, surpassing the coronavirus, obesity and cancer.

The chart shows that 53 percent of U.S. respondents said that they thought mental health was the biggest health problem facing people in their country as of August this year, up from 51 percent in 2022. Where the coronavirus had been considered the biggest health problem by roughly two thirds of U.S. respondents throughout the pandemic, perceptions of the danger of the virus have now dropped to just 15 percent of respondents

Majority of Americans Have Struggled with Mental Health

Having long been stigmatized as a sign of weakness, mental health problems have become much less of a taboo in recent years. The pandemic, with its unique set of challenges, accelerated that trend, as it not only caused a spike in symptoms of anxiety or depression, but also led to more people opening up about their problems. 

In a recent Statista survey, three in four of American adults reported that they have struggled with mental health in some form or other in the 12 months preceding the survey, making an open discourse about mental health issues all the more important.

Percent of U.S. respondents who have experience the following mental health issues in the last 12 months: stress (52%), anxiety (49%), depressive phase (34%), mood swings (30%), loneliness/social isolation (29%), sadness (25%), struggles with self- esteem (25%), panic attacks (22%) phases of lethargy (16%) phobias (8%).


STATISTA: Cost is a Major Barrier to Mental Health Services

Most common reasons for unmet mental health treatment: could not afford it (42%), did not know where to get services (27%), thought they could handle the problem (26%), didn't have the time (19%), insurance did not pay enough (17%).


STATISTA: Suicide Among the Most Common Causes of Death

Suicide is a leading cause of death for persons between age 10 and 34 ranking second for persons ages 10-14 and ages 25-34, and third for persons ages 15-24. Accidental death is the leading cause between age 10 to 34. Forty five percent of accidental death come from poisoning, increasing from opioid overdose.

STATISTA: The U.S. Military Suicide Crises

Nearly half of those serving in the U.S. military have contemplated suicide since joining the forces, according to the Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America (IAVA) Members 2022 report. This is a huge jump up from the nine percent that said they had thought about taking their own life before signing up. 

To put this into context, estimates currently put the figure of suicides among active-duty personnel and veterans of the post 9/11 wars at 30,177 - a high number, especially when considering that 7,057 U.S. service members were killed in war operations in that time.

Young adults aged 18 to 34 are leading the charge to drink less for better health. Americans increasingly believe drinking in moderation (i.e. one to two drinks a day) is bad for one’s health. However, the majority think the best advice for a person who drinks an average amount of alcohol is to reduce how much they consume rather than stop drinking altogether. Young adults are more likely than middle-aged and older adults to say alcohol presents health risks, and their alcohol consumption has dropped significantly in recent years. 

GALLUP: U.S. Depression Rate Reaches New Highs in 2023

Clinical depression in lifetime and current depression both hit new highs Women and young adults have experienced the greatest increases. Black and Hispanic adults rising at about twice the rate of White adults. 

According to survey data, three in ten people in the United States had been clinically diagnosed with depression at a point in their lives in 2023. This is the highest rate since the question started being asked, up 10.6 percentage points from 2015. The rate of increase was particularly steep in the first year of the pandemic, jumping up from 22.9 percent in 2020 to 28.6 percent in 2021. Meanwhile, 17.8 percent of respondents said that they currently had depression in 2023.

STATISTA and GALLUP are major global research organizations. The STATISTA charts are free for public use either as a downloadable jpeg file or in html format. Ways of providing suitable acknowledged are given.  

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Full disclosure, I was Director of Planning, Research and Evaluation for the ADAMHS Board from 1989 until 2003 when I retired.

In my work at the ADAMHS Board, I strongly supported the empowerment of people with mental illness. I wrote a grant for a Leadership Development Program for persons with severe mental illness. That helped consumers found their own agency as well as take increasing prominent roles in various agencies. 

At my retirement in 2003 the Board established a Consumer Achievement Award for the Annual Board Dinner. My delight in the years since has been to attend the annual board meeting and hear the many accomplishments of people recovering from mental illness and addiction.  

Besides empowering consumers, my joy while working for the Board was connecting what was going on in Lake County with national trends, data and statistics. Almost every year I made presentations at national professional conferences of what we were doing in Lake County as well as attending sessions that featured the work being done elsewhere.

THE BOTTOM LINE

I hope these posts and their infographics will empower consumers, family members and friends of those in recovery to initiate conversations around mental illness and addiction, and in that process recognize the achievements of those in recovery from mental illness and addiction.