One of the greatest barriers to mental health care systems is financial security. Not enough money is put into all facets of mental health care because there are not enough resources, trained professionals, or sponsors willing to flood the system with enough funding to make a difference. In some areas mental health care is not as available as it could be, and more often than not the mental health care system could be greatly improved if it were monetarily supported in a more efficient manner. Increasing funding in the mental health care system is an important subject. Mental health issues are a leading cause of disability in the United States. Over 25% percent of the general population encounters mental illness annually (Hebert, 2009). Current statistics state that 1 in 5 people will, at some point in their adult lives, experience a form of mental illness (Gardner, 2015). This equates to over 57 million people, and prices can rise upward of $190 billion annually in losses for the United States (Hebert, 2009). However, this number does not account for all of the indirect costs of mental health, like those accrued by individuals held in jails or hospitals, or those who are homeless (Hebert, 2009).
The American Psychological Association has reported that 25% of the …show more content…
Annually more than 2 million youth become involved in the juvenile justice system and 70% of those youths have one or more diagnosable mental illnesses (Zajac, Sheidow, & Davis, 2015). Forty to seventy percent of youth that are already incarcerated experience mental health struggles (Barrett, Katsiyannis, Zhang, & Zhang, 2014). In a study done recently on youth that have been detained, 84% of girls and 27% of boys met criteria for a DSM-IV diagnosis of at least one mental disorder (Barrett, Katsiyannis, Zhang, & Zhang, 2014). Almost half of these showed mental illness in adulthood as well (Barrett, Katsiyannis, Zhang, & Zhang,