The US has a long and troubled history of dealing with mental illness.
A decade ago, a national survey found that nearly two thirds of Americans felt that they had experienced at least one mental illness in their lifetime.
Since then, a slew of studies have shown that America’s mental health system has not kept pace with the epidemic.
But now, a new study from Johns Hopkins University and the University of Southern California has found that in recent years, a significant percentage of Americans are actually living with mental illnesses.
This is despite the fact that the US government is investing in mental health as a way to make the country more safe and healthy, not as a punishment for those who are struggling with mental health problems.
In this piece, I’ll explore the study’s findings and highlight the need for the federal government to invest more in mental wellness.
A new report from Johns and the USC researchers, published in the Journal of Health Economics, shows that people with mental disorders in the United States are much more likely to have substance use disorders than the general population.
This means that these people are more likely than the average American to engage in illegal drugs and alcohol.
A recent national survey from Johns found that 63 percent of people with substance use problems were at risk for getting addicted to opioids.
And the US Department of Health and Human Services has already begun to spend millions on substance use treatment.
The problem is, the research doesn’t support these findings.
As the Johns researchers explain, a recent study by the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) found that among people with depression, the odds of having an untreated mental disorder was roughly double the odds among those who were not diagnosed with a mental disorder.
A separate study by Johns and USC showed that the number of people diagnosed with bipolar disorder was more than double the number who were diagnosed with schizophrenia.
And a 2016 survey of people who had had a psychiatric diagnosis in the past two years showed that nearly half of people reported that they would consider suicide if their mental health were to deteriorate further.
“We need to acknowledge that mental health is a public health issue,” says Julie A. Stromberg, director of the Johns Hopkins Center for Social Work and a member of the study team.
“It’s a public safety issue, and it’s a social issue.”
The Johns study also found that Americans with mental issues were more likely in the top 1 percent of income earners, who had an average household income of $84,800.
And nearly a quarter of the people in the bottom 1 percent had an income less than $20,000.
While there is no doubt that the federal funding is critical to making mental health treatment more accessible to people with serious mental illness, the researchers argue that a more comprehensive approach could do more to reduce the stigma that surrounds mental illness and to help those with mental disorder to heal themselves.
In addition to the economic benefit of making mental healthcare more accessible, the study found that the increased access to treatment could also help the nation improve its mental health outcomes.
“These are people who are very poor, who are disproportionately young, who suffer from substance use and who are in need of treatment for some form of mental illness,” says Stromenberg.
“The cost of that treatment is high.”
For the study, the Johns team looked at data from the National Comorbidity Survey Replication, a nationally representative survey of Americans that is conducted each year by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services.
In 2015, the survey found 1.9 million people were living with substance abuse or dependence disorders, and 1.1 million were currently experiencing an untreated diagnosis.
But even though the number had increased, the prevalence of substance use disorder diagnoses had decreased.
“In general, the overall prevalence of mental disorders is decreasing in the U.S. and is increasing among the young,” says Dr. Susan C. Gannon, an associate professor of psychiatry at Johns Hopkins and a co-author of the paper.
The researchers also looked at how much of the change in prevalence of psychiatric disorders had come from the increase in the number diagnosed.
According to the researchers, the rate of substance abuse and dependence diagnoses in the population has increased about 16 percent over the past 30 years.
But the prevalence rate for substance use has increased just slightly over the same time period.
“There has not been a significant increase in mental disorders,” says Alyssa Stokowski, a research associate at Johns who is also a member the study.
“For example, people who have been diagnosed with anxiety disorders have increased by about 10 percent in the last 30 years, but they still account for about one-third of the population.”
What’s more, the data showed that in 2015, people with a substance use diagnosis had more than twice the likelihood of being in a hospital emergency room, a situation that was also associated with a significant increased risk of suicide.
“This data shows that when it comes to substance use, the risk of death