According to information provided by the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH), in the United States, one in five people lives with mental health problems. The overall number of people with mental illnesses in 2019 was 51.5 million in adults aged 18 or older, while the total population was close to three hundred million people. The statistics data on mental illnesses are defined in two parts, one of which is the number of cases of Any Mental Illness (AMI), and the other includes data on Serious Mental Illness (SMI). As AMI data displays the current state of the problem without emphasizing the seriousness of the issue with the population’s mental health, the paper focuses on SMI data to demonstrate the morbidity aspect.
The mental health morbidity chart shows that in 2019, among 328 million people, there were 13,1 million people age 18 and older suffering from mental illness. The chart demonstrates that the group that is more affected by SMIs and presents a significant threat is young adults aged from 18 to 25 years. If that trend continues, in the future, there would be significantly more adults suffering from serious mental illnesses than there are now. Females show a tendency to suffer from mental illnesses almost two times more than men. In terms of race, most cases of SMI happen among adults reporting two or more races.
In an article on mortality rates among people suffering from severe mental illnesses, de Mooij et al. (2019) defeminated rates for natural and unnatural causes of death. In most deaths among adults with SMI, death is caused by natural reasons, and only 14% of death outcomes account for unnatural causes (de Mooij et al., 2019). According to de Mooij et al. (2019), old age, cardiovascular diseases, cigarette smoking, and alcohol or drug use present factors that affect mortality outcomes. Adding regular screenings and healthy lifestyle promotions to currently existing mental health oriented-programs would help in preventing deaths from unnatural causes.
References
de Mooij, L. D, Kikkert, M., Theunissen, J., Beekman, A., de Haan, L., Duurkoop, P., Van, H. L., & Dekker, J. (2019). Dying too soon: Excess mortality in Severe Mental Illness. Frontiers in Psychiatry, 10, 1-10. Web.
NIMH. (n.d.). Mental illness. Web.