Mental Health in America:

Addressing Prevalence, Treatment, and Policy Solutions

Key Speakers

Overview

According to Mental Health America (MHA), the largest mental health advocacy group in the country, one in five Americans, or 20%, experienced some kind of mental illness in 2019. Two years of the Coronavirus pandemic later, data from the Kaiser Family Foundation showed that in January of 2021, 40% of American adults reported symptoms of anxiety or depression. Of that number, 36% turned to substances to cope and 30% had seriously contemplated suicide. Essential workers made up a majority share of all three statistics. Rates of mental illness amongst youth have also increased during this period. According to data collected by the CDC through March of 2022, 44% of school-aged teens reported feeling persistently hopeless, up from 36% in 2019. Youth suicides, already at a high-water mark pre-Covid, climbed even higher with hospitals registering up to 50% higher rates of admission in the winter of 2021 than what they’d seen just 12 months prior. MHA also notes that more than half of people suffering with mental health concerns in America are suffering without treatment either because of cost, availability, or stigma against seeking help. 

On the Federal policy front, President Biden, in his first State of the Union Address, unveiled a comprehensive Mental Health Strategy designed to expand and strengthen the capacities of the mental healthcare system; to connect Americans to mental healthcare through more robust insurance coverage; and to improve the mental health environment, especially for children and young people who spend so much time in digital spaces. Another measure just launched in July of this year is a national mental health alternative to 911 that connects individuals in crisis to a mental health professional who can de-escalate the situation over the phone or call in a specialized response team. 

NPR and other news outlets have reported experts are encouraged that the Federal government is taking an active role in mental health for the first time in four decades. They believe that if properly implemented and funded, the President’s proposals will go a long way towards addressing the shortcomings in access to mental health care treatment. They are also supportive of the mental health hotline and see it as a long overdue alternative to sending law enforcement to respond to mental health crises. The President’s critics meanwhile worry that the focus on treatment, while welcome, does little to address the root causes of economic despair and hopelessness at the core of Americans’ poor mental health. Critics from the right also argue that because of the sheer volume of mental health calls police receive, and the violent nature of some mental health encounters, law enforcement is still the best positioned group to respond to such incidents.

This symposium will offer a chance for policymakers, mental health care providers, social workers, community leaders, representatives of the healthcare and insurance industries, and other stakeholders to examine this issue in an open and non-partisan context with the goal of interrogating existing policies to identify shortcomings for improvement in the mental health of all Americans.

Program

Who Should Attend?