Mental Health America Releases First-Ever Dashboard With Results of 2.6 Million Mental Health Screens Taken During Pandemic

Alexandria, VA and Deerfield, IL, Feb. 16, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — Mental Health America (MHA), with support from Lundbeck, today released a first-of-its kind dashboard that geographically maps the results of 2.6 million mental health screenings taken through the MHA Online Screening Program in 2020 and 2021. The dashboard provides a view of at-risk rates of suicidal ideation, severe depression, PTSD, trauma, and psychosis for every state and county in the U.S.​

Since 2014, MHA has provided online mental health screening to roughly 1 million users a year from around the world. This dashboard analyzes 2020 and 2021 data from the 2.6 million users located in the U.S.  MHA previously published multiple reports and research studies using the data collected from the MHA Online Screening Program but has never publicly released this data at a county level or mapped this data geographically.

The data points calculated in this dashboard for U.S. states and counties include:

• the number of people in each state/county who took a screen for one of the above-mentioned conditions as part of the MHA Online Screening Program
• the number of people in each state/county who scored positive on the screen they took
• the number of people who scored positive per 100,000 state/county population

The dashboard will also rank states in comparison to each other on these measures. Currently, the three states with the most people scoring positive for respective conditions per 100,000 population are:

Suicidal Ideation: Utah, Indiana, Alaska

Severe Depression: Indiana, Utah, Tennessee

PTSD: Arkansas, Alaska, Oklahoma

Trauma: Oregon, Oklahoma, Indiana

Psychosis: West Virginia, Oklahoma, Kentucky

The data illustrated in the dashboard represents the minimum number of individuals who are at risk for these conditions. Before initiating care for a new mental health condition or seeking care for a relapse of symptoms from an existing mental health condition, people are likely to turn to the internet to seek information and solutions about their concerns.

“We are in the midst of a twin pandemic in 2022, we are battling both the public health crisis introduced by COVID-19, and a mental health crisis. If we ignore the mental health crisis happening, it will linger for decades to come. In order to respond effectively to mental health needs in our communities, we need to know who is struggling and where there is the most need,” said Schroeder Stribling, president and CEO of Mental Health America. “That’s exactly what this vital project does – the dashboard identifies places where people are first starting to think they may be experiencing depression, suicidal ideation, psychosis, trauma, or other conditions, and it gives communities the opportunity to intervene at the earliest stage.”

The data is intended to identify communities in need of greater mental health support, generate a better understanding of mental health concerns in the U.S., direct appropriate allocation of resources, and create an environment that promotes mental wellness at the population level.

MHA and Lundbeck believe that the data will be critical to preparing a timely and appropriate response to the current mental health crisis; and it can be used to ensure appropriate federal, state, and local funding is made available to support quality mental health care for youth, adults, and families now and in the future.

“We’re witnessing a historic increase in various mental health conditions. Companies, governments, academia, and society need to act together to find solutions for this global mental health crisis. As a purpose-driven organization,  Lundbeck is proud to partner with Mental Health America on this innovative initiative and join forces around the goal of driving action for people in need of mental health support, destigmatizing mental health and supporting increased access to various mental health resources,” said Deborah Dunsire, president and CEO of Lundbeck.

This dashboard is the culmination of stakeholder meetings and the publication of briefs from MHA and Lundbeck identifying communities hardest-hit by the mental health impacts emerging amid the COVID-19 pandemic. The series examined suicidal ideation (released May 30, 2021), severe depression (released August 19, 2021), trauma (released October 13, 2021) and psychosis (released December 14, 2021).

The dashboard and series of briefs were made possible by the support of Lundbeck.

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About Mental Health America

Mental Health America (MHA) is the nation’s leading community-based nonprofit dedicated to addressing the needs of those living with mental illness and promoting the overall mental health of all. MHA’s work is driven by its commitment to promote mental health as a critical part of overall wellness, including prevention services for all; early identification and intervention for those at risk; integrated care, services, and supports for those who need them; with recovery as the goal. Learn more at MHAnational.org.

About Lundbeck

H. Lundbeck A/S (LUN.CO, LUN DC, HLUYY) is a global pharmaceutical company specialized in brain diseases. For more than 70 years, we have been at the forefront of neuroscience research. We are tirelessly dedicated to restoring brain health, so every person can be their best. We are committed to fighting stigma and discrimination against people living with brain diseases and advocating for broader social acceptance of people with brain health conditions. Our research programs tackle some of the most complex challenges in neuroscience, and our pipeline is focused on bringing forward transformative treatments for which there are few, if any therapeutic options.

For additional information, we encourage you to visit our corporate site www.lundbeck.com/us and connect with us on Twitter at @Lundbeck and via LinkedIn.