EMS reports that 14% of all runs for mental illness occur within 8 square miles, where poverty is concentrated throughout Indianapolis.
More than 32% of Marion County’s homeless in 2015 were determined to be severely mentally ill. Mental illness also increases the chance that an individual will commit a crime if that illness remains untreated. Recent estimates classify 30% of inmates in the Marion County Jail as mentally ill.
Mental Health America ranks Indiana as one of the worst states for providing mental health care:
- Access to mental health care (all ages): 37th
- Prevalence of mental illness (all ages): 43rd
- Adults (prevalence of mental illness and access to care): 47th
- Adolescents (prevalence of mental illness and access to care): 34th
The U.S. Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) in a report titled, “Behavioral Health Barometer: Indiana, 2015”, featured the following statistics:
- 12.2 percent of adolescents in Indiana experienced a major depressive episode in 2012 and 2013, which was higher than the national average of 11.0 percent.
- More than 60 percent of adolescents in Indiana who had a major depressive episode did not receive treatment for depression.
- 4.8 percent of adults in Indiana experienced a serious mental illness in 2013 and 2014, which was higher than the national average of 4.2 percent.
- 4.1 percent of adults in Indiana had serious thoughts about suicide in 2013 and 2014, which was higher than the national average of 3.9 percent.
What can you do to impact Mental Illness in Indianapolis? Click HERE.
Published by