Mental Health Facts

Missouri Partners in Crisis
Advocating Mental Health and Substance Abuse Services

Mental Health Facts
(We gratefully acknowledge the help of INFONET for gathering this information)

Mental illnesses are physical brain disorders that profoundly disrupt a person's ability to think, feel and relate to others and their environment.
Mental illnesses are more common than cancer, diabetes or heart disease.
In any given year, more than five million Americans suffer from an acute episode of mental illness.
One in every five families is affected in their lifetime by a severe mental illness, such as bipolar disorder, schizophrenia and major depression.
One in ten children and adolescents have mental illnesses severe enough to cause some level of impairment. Yet fewer than one in five of these young people receives needed treatment.
The treatment success rate for schizophrenia is 60%, 65% for major depression and 80% for bipolar disorder. Comparatively, the success rate for treatment of heart disease ranges from 41-52%.
The number one reason for hospital admissions nationwide is a biological psychiatric condition. At any moment, almost 21 percent of hospital beds are filled by people with a mental illness. The total price tag of mental illnesses in the U.S. is $148 billion, including direct cost (hospitalizations, medications) and indirect costs (lost wages, family caregiving, losses due to suicide).
On any given day, approximately 150,000 people with severe mental illness are homeless, living on the streets or in public shelters.
Roughly 80 to 90 percent of people with serious brain disorders are unemployed.

Did you Know?

People with mental illness spend 15 months longer in state prisons than other defendants.
Over 50% of local jail inmates report symptoms of mania, 30% major depression, and 24% psychotic disorder.
From 1993 to 2003, Missouri's emergency rooms experienced an 83% increase in the number of people suffering from mental illness.
Psychiatric beds declined by 40% between 1990 and 2003 in Missouri