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6 Real Policy Solutions to the U.S. Mental Health Crisis
We’re in trouble; it’s time for effective change
The United States’ mental health crisis is the murmur turned cry within the wake of the Covid-19 pandemic. The CDC reports that depressive disorders quadrupled between June 2020 and the prior year. Mental health conditions, substance use, and suicidal ideation are also on the rise. These trends, while multiplied by Covid-19, have been mounting for decades. One in five U.S. citizens lives with a mental illness; and over the past 20 years, suicide rates have increased by 33%.
Now is the time to begin thinking about the long-term game of mental health in the United States — the approaches to build up the nation’s well-being in the coming months and years.
To be clear, I am not a mental health professional. I am a daughter of a parent lost to suicide. I am a witness to the shadows of mental health stigma; the stresses of the 2008 recession; and the hurdles to accessible and transparent mental health care. In the day-to-day, I am an analyst at the intersection of data-driven research and policy.
Here, I lay out six mental health policy recommendations for the United States during Covid-19 and beyond.
1. Destigmatize mental health
Nearly one third of U.S. citizens worry about others judging them for seeking out mental health resources. In the face of stigma, even the most sophisticated mental health systems will have limited reach.
A publicly funded, multimedia public awareness campaign on mental health could have wide-reaching effects on stigma. Similar campaigns have been shown to shift perspectives, norms, and behavior in a range of contexts, including mental health in New Zealand and Australia. The corporate world, in parallel, plays no small role in influencing norms through advertising. Mental health destigmatization should become a strategic element of corporate social responsibility agendas in the coming years.
