Mental Health America (MHA) is the nation’s leading community-based nonprofit dedicated to addressing the needs of those living with mental illness.

MHA’s 2023 Mental Health Awareness Month campaign will focus on the way our neighborhoods and physical surroundings can impact individual and population mental health. More specifically, topics include:

• What is a mentally healthy and safe space?
• How can I change my surroundings to support my mental health?
• What if I can’t control or change something unhealthy about my surroundings?
• What do advocates and community organizers need to know about how healthy and unhealthy public spaces relate to overall community mental health?

Mental health statistics:

• From 2019-2020, over 50 million Americans experienced some form of mental illness.
• Millions of adults in the U.S. experience suicidal ideation, with the highest rate among multiracial individuals. 
• More than one in 10 youth in the U.S. are experiencing depression that severely impairs their ability to function at school/work, at home, with family, or in their social life. 
• More than half (54.7%) of adults with a mental illness do not receive treatment, totaling more than 28 million individuals.
• Nationally, only 28% of youth with severe depression receive some consistent treatment (7-25 visits in a year). Most (57.3%) youth with severe depression do not receive any care.
• In the U.S., there are an estimated 350 individuals for every one mental health provider. 

Source: Mental Health America

Click here for additional behavioral health resources for BCBSRI members