Mental illness is an epidemic that is growing and becoming more common in the United States. In the USA, it is estimated that more than 1 out of 5 adults live with a mental illness. This translates to approximately 57.8 million people with any mental illnesses and 14.1 million individuals with serious mental illnesses. This surge can be attributed to the increase in predisposing factors of mental illness, such as unemployment and hard economic environments. Both any and serious mental illnesses have had a growing prevalence in all age population brackets. Young adults had a higher prevalence of any mental illness and serious mental illness compared to other age groups. Gender-wise, females had a higher prevalence of both types of mental illness compared to males. Painting further the mental illness picture, the population diagnosed with mental illness does not fully get the appropriate mental health care to have them get and stay healthy. In 2021, out of the 57.8 million people diagnosed with any mental illness, only 47.2% received mental health services. On the other hand, of the 14.1 million people with serious mental illnesses, only 65.4% received the appropriate mental health treatment (National Institute of Mental Health, 2023).
The gap between those diagnosed with a mental disorder and those who obtain the respective mental health treatment can be associated with many reasons, including unawareness of where to seek help and being unable to afford mental health treatment. Therefore, it is important that mental illness discussions continue to ensure that mental health access is increased. Consequently, mental health issues will rise and continue to be part of the presidential agenda until there are indicative statics that it has been solved.
Dealing with mental health issues requires all hands on deck, including those of professionals, especially nurses. Firstly, nurses are the primary caregivers to patients; therefore, they understand the early signs and symptoms of a person with a mental illness. In addition, nurses are the perfect point source for promoting mental health and advocating for people with mental illness. Lastly, nurses have first-hand information about the experiences and needs of individuals with mental illness, which makes them a critical input in policy implementation and development.
Brach, C., & Borsky, A. (2020). How the U.S. Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality Promotes Health Literate Health Care. Studies in Health Technology and Informatics, 269, 313–323. https://doi.org/10.3233/SHTI200046
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