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The State of Mental Health in America 2021 report found that youth especially struggle with mental health.
The percentage of youths with severe major depression in the country has increased from 9.2% last year to 9.7% this year. This rate is higher by a few percentage points for youth who identify as more than one race. The number of young people ages 11-17 who accessed screening were 9% higher than 2019’s average, and they have been more likely to score for moderate to severe symptoms of anxiety and depression than other age group.
More than half of youth reported thoughts of suicide or self-harm for more than half or about every day for two weeks in September. More than 77,400 youths, including almost 28,000 LGBTQ+ youths, reported frequent suicidal ideation from January to September.
For youths, Vermont ranked lowest in mental illness prevalence and highest in access to care, while Nevada ranks as having the highest prevalence of mental illness and the lowest access to care. Access to care measures access to insurance, special education and treatment, quality and cost of insurance and the number of mental health providers in the workforce compared to county population. For the access to care category alone, Vermont was ranked highest in access to care, and Georgia was ranked the lowest. If examining overall prevalence of mental illness for adults and youths, then New Jersey has the lowest, and Oregon has the highest.
More people in general, adults included, have reported frequent thoughts of suicide or self-harm than ever recorded by the Mental Health America Screening program, particularly after the COVID-19 pandemic began.
The report also showed that more people are looking for help with anxiety and depression, but these needs for care are still going unmet. For the first time since the passing of the Affordable Care Act, the percentage of adults with mental illness who are uninsured has increased, and 10.8%, or 5.1 million adults, are uninsured, according to the report.
For adults, Hawaii has the lowest prevalence of mental illness and the highest access to care, while Utah has the highest prevalence of mental illness and the lowest access to care.