Category: Stigma

Women in Mental Health Need

Mental Health, Stigma, Violence, Women

A 2017 Kaiser survey of women’s health indicated that 49% of uninsured women either did not seek out or delayed care due to the costs.

34% of women reported going without or delaying care because they could not take time off of work compared to higher-income women (19%).

Approximately 60% of caregivers are women.

Caregivers have 63% higher mortality than noncaregivers.

16% to 50% of women will experience a violent episode over the course of their lives.

1 out of 5 According to the World Health Organization (WHO), at least 1 out of 5 women have experienced rape or an attempted rape in their lifetime.

Sources:

The Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation. Women’s coverage, access, and affordability: key findings from the 2017 Kaiser Women’s Health Survey. Issue Brief. 2018. http://files.kff.org/attachment/Issue-Brief-Womens-Coverage-Access-and-Affordability-Key-Findings-from-the-2017-Kaiser-Womens-Health-Survey.

National Alliance for Caregiving (NAC) and the AARP Public Policy Institute. Caregiving in the U.S. 2015 Report. https://www.aarp.org/content/dam/aarp/ppi/2015/caregiving-in-the-united-states-2015-report-revised.pdf.

Schultz R, Beach SR. Caregiving as a risk factor for mortality: the Caregiver Health Effects Study. JAMA. 1999;282(23):2215-2219.

World Health Organization. Gender and women’s mental health. 2019. https://www.who.int/mental_health/prevention/genderwomen/en/.

Child Mind Institute. 2016 Child Mind Institute Children’s Mental Health Report. 2016. https://childmind.org/report/2016-childrens-mental-health-report/.

National Alliance on Mental Illness. Jailing people with mental illness. 2019. https://www.nami.org/learn-more/public-policy/jailing-people-with-mental-illness. Accessed: February 12, 2020.

Mental Illness and Stigma

Mental Health, Stigma

MENTAL ILLNESS & STIGMA

Stigma is a mark of disgrace associated with a particular circumstance, quality, or person. Never is this so acute in American society as when discussing mental illness, the boogeyman of all health conditions. I’m not going to try to bore you with statistics, but there are a few to understand to put this epidemic in perspective (Statistics provided by the National Institute of Mental Health and American Journal of Psychiatry):

• 43.8 million adults experience mental illness in a given year.

• 1 in 5 adults in America experience a mental illness.

• Nearly 1 in 25 (10 million) adults in America live with a serious mental illness.

• One-half of all chronic mental illness begins by the age of 14; three-quarters by the age of 24.

• 18.1% (42 million) of American adults live with anxiety disorders.

• 6.9% (16 million) of American adults live with major depression.

• 2.6% (6.1 million) of American adults live with bipolar disorder.

• 1 in 100 (2.4 million) American adults live with schizophrenia.

• Depression is the leading cause of disability worldwide, and is a major contributor to the global burden of disease.

• Serious mental illness costs America $193.2 billion in lost earning every year.

• 90% of those who die by suicide have an underlying mental illness. Suicide is the 10th leading cause of death in the U.S.

• Nearly 60% of adults with a mental illness didn’t receive mental health services in the previous year.