United States: According to the reports of the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA), as reported on Tuesday, almost 1 in three adolescents in the US has received mental health treatment in last year.
It constitutes almost 8.3 million young people between the ages of 12 and 17 receiving counseling, medication, or other treatment.
More about the news
The results were one of the findings released from SAMHSA’s National Survey on Drug Use and Health for 2023. The federal agency tracks the poll, which is conducted annually with the help of mental health and addiction experts.
The survey involved various questions from the participating Americans, all of whom were age twelve and older and lived in the community, not in care facilities.
What were the study findings?
The most commonly used treatment for mental health was meeting with a provider in an outpatient setting, such as the office of a therapist or school counseling center.
The findings suggested that adolescents saw a bigger jump in numbers from 2022 for getting medication for mental health treatment.
However, the share of adults receiving mental health treatment is raised from 21.8 percent in the 2022 survey to 23 percent in 2023.
Additionally, the SAMHSA officials noticed this increase as a positive development, citing efforts to normalize and destigmatize seeking out mental health treatment.
Experts comments
The experts suggest that the rise indicates a healthy trend of more teens seeking medical help for their mental health issues.
Moreover, as Miriam Delphin-Rittmon, who is an assistant Secretary for Mental Health and Substance Use, added such treatments are more reachable, and the current Biden-Harris government has made several efforts.
Rising cases of mental health treatment
Since 2009, a steady rise in the number of adolescents receiving mental health treatment has been observed, as per SAMHSA’s survey.
As a result, in 2022, there were around 7.7 million of those aged 12 to 17 years who had received mental health treatment of some kind. There were an additional 500,000 adolescents getting treatment in 2023, SAMHSA said.
Along with that, the rate of adolescents who reportedly experienced depressive episodes has remained almost the same number in the age group of 12 to 17 years old, at 18.1 percent or 4.5 million.
According to Delphin-Rittmon, “The report shows us that we must remain steadfast in our efforts to address the mental health and substance use crises,” as CBS News reported.