Hi, my name is Mighty Fine, I’m an expert with the American Public Health Association,
and today we’re going to talk about mental health.
If we clicked on #selfcare on social media, we’d get over 50 million posts of smiling
faces and captions like “show up for yourself” and
“happiness starts with you.” Self care is often used as a stand-in for
mental health, but it’s really just one small piece of the
puzzle. The World Health Organization defines health as “a state of complete physical,
mental and social well-being, and not merely the
absence of disease or infirmity.” So like health in general, good mental health
is a lot more than not being sick. According to
APHA, being mentally healthy means being able to cope with everyday stress, maintain
meaningful relationships and work productively. But we don’t always feel mentally healthy.
The American Psychological Association says that mental illness is a health condition
that involves significant changes in our thinking or emotions that disrupt our everyday life.
There are degrees of mental illness, from temporary bouts of depression to lifelong
conditions like bipolar disorder. But overall, mental
illness affects nearly 1 in 5 adults in the U.S. in any given
year — with depression and anxiety being two of the most common conditions.
Mental illness isn’t just mental, though — it can impact our physical health too.
Numerous studies have shown that depression increases
the risk of developing heart disease, and that
mental illness can lead to unhealthy behaviors like alcohol and substance misuse.
We call anything that negatively impacts mental health a stressor. Some stressors affect people
on the individual level, like family life, money or conflicts at work or school. But
other stressors affect entire communities, like poverty, neighborhood
violence, or climate change. So that’s another reason that #selfcare
isn’t telling us the whole story. Our mental health doesn’t
begin and end with ourselves. Studying mental health and community-wide
stressors provides public health experts with data to help people access the support they
need — which is a really important ongoing issue.
A group called Mental Health America reported that 57% of adults with a mental illness didn’t
receive treatment in 2020 — that’s over 20 million people.
And so far we think there are a few reasons why. According to numerous studies, the stigma
around mental illness prevents some people from seeking help. To break that stigma, researchers
suggest normalizing taking care of our mental health to make people more comfortable with
it over time. Like making a mental health assessment a routine
part of a doctor’s visit, or offering mental and physical health services in the same facilities.
That way, other people won’t know if you’re getting a physical or seeing a therapist.
Mental Health America also says 22% of adults with mental illness were untreated in 2020
because of limited insurance, a lack of psychiatrists and treatment options, or cost.
So a big public health goal is making treatment more accessible. Like with the 2010 Affordable
Care Act, which expanded insurance coverage for mental health services and lowered the
number of uninsured Americans. Still, not all insurance plans cover mental
health services. And Americans in rural areas or
low-income households were less likely to report having access to care in 2018.
Another way we can improve care is by promoting diversity within the mental health care
industry. Numerous studies have shown that people are more likely to continue mental
health treatment and report improvements in their
well-being if they can find health care providers with their same cultural or ethnic backgrounds.
But in 2015, 86% of psychologists in the U.S. workforce were white, only 5 percent were
Black and half a percent were Indigenous Americans. Mental health might seem like an individual
struggle, but access to mental health services is
affected by community-wide factors. Addressing these issues will take public health
agencies, policymakers, and communities all working together, and that’s what makes
mental health a public health issue. Thanks for watching! This video is part of
a series created by Complexly and the American Public Health Association to shed a little
light on the important work that public health does. To
learn more, visit APHA.org.