In some ways, it doesn’t seem to make a ton of sense to break certain things down by state. When it comes to healthcare, however, that’s how we need to complete any type of analysis. Our American healthcare system is extremely state driven, which means that every jurisdiction has different amounts and types of resources and priorities allocated in its own way. This, of course, includes mental healthcare. Therefore, it’s helpful to take a look at the state of mental health in Idaho for a plethora of reasons.
In short, the status of mental health care in Idaho is improving, but we still have a lot of work to do in order to consider ourselves fully served. SoCal Empowered of Idaho has been working to move things in the right direction so that more people can get the help they need. Below we’re going to provide a look at how things stand in our state by looking back over the past few years. We would all agree that the bottom line is that the more people who need help get it, the better off we all will be as a result.
About KFF and the Data
KFF may not be an organization that’s a household name, but they do extremely important work in several different contexts. In general, they are a group that provides free data and research from an unbiased point of view. Some of their analysis focuses on different aspects of mental health. They compile data from several different sources – government and private – and offer it out to the public. You can find a link to their website here. The most recent data available from KFF is from 2019, which will be our starting point.
Mild Mental Illness and No Treatment in Idaho
The first category we’re going to get into is the percentage of people in Idaho who had suffered at least a mild mental illness in the previous year. According to the KFF data, that percentage stood at 60.9 percent. While that is a troubling number, what is even more surprising is that Idaho ranked only 41st in that category. That means that 40 jurisdictions reported a higher number of people who had suffered a minor mental illness and did not receive treatment. Florida ranked the highest at 78.7 percent.
Moderate Mental Illness and No Treatment in Idaho
When it came to moderate mental illness, 52.1 percent of adults had suffered in that regard in the previous year and had not received treatment. With regards to this category, Idaho ranked 26th. Hawaii was home to the highest percentage of people who fell into this category, with 70.7 percent. Iowa was the lowest at 32.2 percent. The national average was 53.5 percent, higher than that of Idaho.
Serious Mental Illness and No Treatment in Idaho
Finally, with regards to the percentage of people in the previous year who had suffered through a serious mental illness without treatment, Idaho checked in at 37.9 percent, above the national average of 35 percent. The District of Columbia was the highest at 47 percent, while Wisconsin was the lowest at 14.4 percent. Generally, this category’s numbers will be lower given the extreme circumstances surrounding severe mental illness, but when more than one third of people facing this difficulty do not get help, in indicates a serious problem.
No Mental Health Treatment Because of Cost
Perhaps one of the most troubling aspects of these data involves the number of people who did not obtain mental health help because of cost. In Idaho, that number was 53,000 adults, almost half of the 109,000 people overall who had problems but who did not seek out treatment. Overall, more than 6 million people in the United States did not obtain treatment due to cost concerns.
Some Additional Context – Current Data
While 2019 was only a few years ago, a lot has obviously happened since then. Most prominently as it relates to mental health, we had the COVID-19 pandemic. Experts nearly unanimously agree that the pandemic led to an explosion in mental health challenges across the entire world for several different reasons.
For instance, more recent data reveal from several sources reveal that approximately 25 percent of the adult population in Idaho suffers from some type of mental illness at any given time. Given that the adult population is approximately 1.35 million, that means that more than 337,000 people in Idaho are suffering. For yet more context, that’s more than 100,000 people higher than the population of Boise, our largest city.
Therefore, it’s safe to say the following with regards to the state of mental health in Idaho:
- Hundreds of thousands of people are suffering from mental illness.
- Approximately half of them do not obtain treatment.
- The numbers are getting worse.
- You most likely know and/or love someone who needs help.
Finally, what all of this should tell people is that if they are not currently concerned about this problem, it’s time to get concerned. If you feel like you are suffering and you’re not getting help, you need to look further into the situation to find out what your options are. There could be a pathway towards getting the help you need. Likewise, you should see about helping a loved one get treatment if you think he or she needs it before the situation gets worse.
How SoCal Empowered of Idaho Can Help
The positive perspective on this issue is that the state of mental health in Idaho can get better. It gets better one person at a time. If you are ready to take that step either for yourself or a loved one, then you need to reach out to us as soon as you can.
We will listen to your situation and help steer you towards the right resource for help, whether that involves working with us or not. What’s critical is that you actually take that first step, so contact us today.
