- One in four adults—approximately 57.7 million Americans—experience a mental health disorder in a given year.
- One in 10 children live with a serious mental or emotional disorder.
- One-half of all lifetime cases of mental illness begin by age 14, three-quarters by age 24.
- Fewer than one-half of children with a diagnosable mental disorder receive mental health services in a given year.
- Racial and ethnic minorities are less likely to have access to mental health services and often receive a poorer quality of care.
- Suicide is the third-leading cause of death for people ages 10-24 years. More than 90 percent of those who die by suicide have a diagnosable mental disorder.
- Twenty-four percent of state prisoners and 21 percent of local jail prisoners have a recent history of a mental health disorder.
- Seventy percent of youth in juvenile justice systems have at least one mental disorder with at least 20 percent experiencing significant functional impairment from a serious mental illness.
- Over 50 percent of students with a mental disorder age 14 and older drop out of high school—the highest dropout rate of any disability group.
Source: NAMI, National Alliance on Mental Illness (2009)
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