Americans Believe Mental Health Issues Still Get Short Shrift - Horowitz
Rób Horowitz, MINDSETTER™
Americans Believe Mental Health Issues Still Get Short Shrift - Horowitz
Specifically, “38% of U.S. adults think mental health issues are handled “much worse” and 37% “somewhat worse” than physical health issues, while 15% say they are dealt with “about the same, documented Gallup. Only 4% of adults say mental health issues are treated better.
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Similarly, when asked to give our health care system a grade for how well it addresses mental health issues, about 6-in-10(57%) US adults give it a “D” or “F.” In contrast, less than 1-in-10 say “A” or “B.” And about 3-in-10 (27%) say our healthcare system has earned a grade of “C.” on how it handles mental health.
US adults identify the most important obstacles to obtaining treatment for mental health conditions as its high cost (52%) and finding a provider (42%), according to Gallup and West Health. Tellingly, people who indicate that “they have experienced a mental health condition in the past year are more likely than those who have not” to say that cost or “difficulty in finding a provider” were barriers to treatment.
Reflecting the significant increase in mental health struggles across our nation that is evident from a broad array of medical statistics, more than 4-in-5 US adults say that there has been a rise in the number of mental health conditions, including depression and anxiety, over the past 5 years, reported Gallup and West Health. More than 4 in 10 say that these conditions have increased a lot.
In fact, more than half of American adults indicate that they themselves have experienced depression, anxiety, or some other mental or emotional condition in the past 12 months, according to the survey. “This group includes 22% who say their condition was so significant that it disrupted their normal activities, such as going to work or caring for their household, and 29% who say it did not rise to that level of disruption,” reported Gallup and West Health.
On a more positive note, most Americans believe treatments such as psychological counseling and prescription medication are effective. In other words, a belief that professional help is unlikely to result in improvements is not widespread. As a result, it is not a major reason for the reluctance among some people to seek treatment.
This new poll is another indicator that, as a society, we need to do a much better job of addressing mental health issues and making affordable and quality treatment available to all who need it. Unfortunately, the important goal of mental health parity remains aspirational. Much more work remains to be done.