New Report Finds Mental Health in US Hasn't Improved

Mental Health America has released its 2025 State of Mental Health in America Report. Unfortunately, according to the report, the prevalence of mental health concerns among adults in the US has not changed significantly from 2021 to 2024.

The report, which highlights the latest national data and state-level rankings on mental health and well-being in the U.S., found in a survey that 23.4% of adults experienced mental health issues in the past year. This is equivalent to 60 million people. And 5.6% of the population suffers from serious mental health issues.

Looking specifically at substance use disorder (SUD), 17.7%, or 46 million people, struggle with this issue. The percentage of adults with SUD did not change significantly from 2021 to 2024.

However, in 2024, the number of overdose deaths in the U.S. decreased for the first time since 2018, likely due to state and federal investments in naloxone access, treatment, and other strategies, the report noted.

The most recently available suicide death data was collected in 2023, which found that the suicide rate was 14 per 100,000 people. Both rates of suicidal ideation and deaths were the same in 2023 as in 2022.

Access to Care

Finding care to treat mental health conditions remains a large problem, with 77% of adults with a SUD not receiving treatment.

Most adults with SUD who sought or considered treatment in 2023 but did not ultimately receive it said it was because they thought they should have been able to handle their drug or alcohol use on their own (74.10%), they weren’t ready to start treatment (65.60%), and/or they were not ready to stop or cut back using alcohol or drugs (60.10%).

Insurance Concerns 

And insurance is an issue with 9.2%, or five million people who have mental illness are without insurance. 

However, Medicaid is the largest payer for behavioral health care in the U.S and in 2023, 26% of all adults with a mental illness or SUD were covered by Medicaid, totaling 22 million adults

People who are uninsured are more likely to forgo needed mental and physical health care, leading to worse outcomes over time, the report notes. Even with insurance, the lack of mental health providers is a concern, as there were 320 individuals for every one mental health provider in 2024.

Some Improvements

The report notes that states that invested in services to reduce overdose rates, such as distribution of opioid overdose reversal treatments and fentanyl test strips, showed significant improvements in reducing other barriers to substance use care from 2022 to 2023.

The percentage of people reporting they did not receive SUD treatment because they did not know how or where to get it decreased by 11.80%, from 48.90% in 2022 to 37.10% in 2023.

The percentage of people reporting their health insurance did not cover alcohol or drug use treatment also decreased, from 40.10% in 2022 to 28.60% in 2023.9. These reductions are likely due to large state and federal investments in substance use awareness and increasing access to treatment providers and programs in 2022 and 2023, the report said.  

Note: The report offers a state-by-state analysis.