Tuesday, March 19, 2013

Stumper! Mental Health Stats

The latest stumper question is from Libby Gorman, NCknows volunteer:

"I had a chat today asking for "north carolina statistics on people receiving mental health services."

Below are some responses from to the question via the NCknows listserv:

 I went to NC LIVE's "Everything NC!" and clicked on NC Health Info. There, under "Reference & Tools" you'll find a list of recommended sites. There are LOTS of possibilities, but the last one may be the best for this problem. If you click on "Substance Abuse and Mental Health" you see a page listing states. I clicked on the most recent report for NC on Mental Health - which was 2006. It gives estimated numbers & percentages for "Serious Psychological Distress" and "Having at Least One Major Depressive Episode." It also shows maps plotting percentages by states.

 There's an article by the National Alliance on Mental Illness http://naminc.org/nn/misc/NCstats.pdf  that summarizes a fair number of statistics about people in NC with mental illnesses, and about the state of mental health services. For deeper research it lists all of the sources for the statistics, many of which seem to be available online.

I may also suggest that you can check the website of the Local Management Entity or Managed Care Organization- for quarterly and annual reports which will give specifics of a region compared to the state numbers. http://www.ncdhhs.gov/mhddsas/lmemap2-13.pdf

You can also use national sites to learn more about a specific state, I suggest using some listed on our Teen’s ‘Help Me’ page, http://www.daviecountync.gov/index.aspx?nid=453- particularly NAMI.

Helpful links from the NC Division of Mental Health, Developmental Disabilities, and Substance Abuse Services:

http://www.ncdhhs.gov/mhddsas/statspublications/index.htm
http://publichealth.nc.gov/lhd/cha/reports.asp
http://www.ncdhhs.gov/mhddsas/statspublications/Reports/annualreport07.pdf

Thank you Kathy Winslow, Gwen Exner, and Julie Whittaker for providing very helpful responses to this stumper question!

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