About Mental/Behavioral Health
Facts and numbers: Adults
- One in four adults - approximately 57.7 million Americans - experience a mental health disorder in a given year. One in seventeen lives with a serious mental illness, such as schizophrenia, major depression, or bipolar disorder, and about one in ten children have a serious mental or emotional disorder.
- About 2.4 million Americans, or 1.1 percent of the adult population, lives with schizophrenia.
- Bipolar disorder affects 5.7 million American adults, approximately 2.6 percent of the adult population per year.
- Major depressive disorder affects 6.7 percent of adults, or about 14.8 million American adults.
- According to the 2004 World Health Report, this is the leading cause of disability in the U.S. and Canada in ages 15 to 44.
- Anxiety disorders, which include panic disorder, obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD), post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), generalized anxiety disorder and phobias, affect about 18.1 percent of adults, an estimated 40 million individuals. Anxiety disorders frequently co-occur with depression or addiction disorders.
- An estimated 5.2 million adults have co-occurring mental health and addiction disorders.
- Of adults using homeless services, 31 percent reported having a combination of these conditions.
- Half of all lifetime cases of mental illness begin by age 14, three-quarters by age 24.
- Despite effective treatments, there are long delays - sometimes decades - between first onset of symptoms and when people seek and receive treatment.
- Fewer than one-third of adults and half of children with a diagnosable mental disorder receive any mental health services in a given year.
- Racial and ethnic minorities are less likely to have access to mental health services and often receive a poorer quality of care.
- In the U.S., the annual economic, indirect cost of mental illnesses is estimated to be $79 billion. Most of that amount - approximately $63 billion - reflects the loss of productivity as a result of illnesses.
- Individuals with serious mental illness face an increased risk of having chronic medical conditions.
- Adults with serious mental illness die 25 years younger than other Americans, largely due to treatable medical conditions.
- Suicide is the eleventh leading cause of death in the U.S., and the third leading cause of death for ages 10 to 24 years. More than 90 percent of those who die by suicide have a diagnosable mental disorder.
- In July 2007, a nationwide report indicated that male veterans are twice as likely to die by suicide as compared with their civilian peers in the general U.S. population.
- Twenty-four percent of state prisoners and 21 percent of local jail prisoners have a recent history of a mental health disorder.
- Seventy percent of youth in juvenile justice systems have at least one mental disorder with at least 20 percent experiencing significant functional impairment from a serious mental illness.
- Over 50 percent of students with a mental disorder age 14 and older drop out of high school - the highest dropout rate of any disability group.
Facts and numbers: Children and Teens
- Mental health problems (mild to severe) affect 1 in 5 children and adolescents.
- In Arizona, 11,394 children have been diagnosed with a serious mental disturbance.
- Half of all lifetime cases of mental illness begin by age 14 and, on average, the delay between the onset of mental illness and treatment is 8 to 10 years (National Institute for Mental Health 2005).
- Mental illness alone does not predict or increase the risk of violence. Youth and adults with serious mental illness are far more often the victims of violence than the perpetrators.
- More than 80 percent of children in foster care have developmental, emotional or behavioral problems. Mental health services are repeatedly identified as their one health-care need. In Arizona in 2006, there were 9,833 children in out-of-home care.
- Only 5 percent of health insurance companies offer equal benefits (parity) for mental versus other forms of medical illness.
- Ninety percent of people who die by suicide suffer from a diagnosable and treatable mental illness at the time of their death. Arizona has the third highest rate of teen suicide in the nation.
- In March 2009, there were 139 homeless (street) youth (who were not with families) in Maricopa County compared to 40 in 2008. Many homeless youth left home as a result of the family’s negative reaction to their pregnancy or their sexual orientation.
- Approximately 50 percent of students age 14 and older with a mental illness drop out of high school—the highest dropout rate of any disability group. Without education, young lives are often defined by poverty and despair.
- In Arizona, approximately 36,000 children ages 12 to 17 needed, but did not receive, treatment for alcohol use in 2004.
- As of 2006, Arizona ranked 41 out of the 50 states in overall child well-being.
Source: Family Involvement Center
