Overall Ranking
A high overall ranking indicates lower prevalence of mental illness and higher rates of access to care. A low overall ranking indicates higher prevalence of mental illness and lower rates of access to care. The combined scores of all 15 measures make up the overall ranking. The overall ranking includes both adult and youth measures as well as prevalence and access to care measures.
The 15 measures that make up the overall ranking include:
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Overall Ranking, 2011 vs 2014
Using past data, we ran the sum of scores for the overall ranking and the access to care ranking and compared those ranking to our most recently available rankings.
11 of the 15 past year’s measures included data from years 2009, 2010, and 2011.
- Students Identified with Emotional Disturbance for an Individualized Education Program is from 2012.
- Mental Health Workforce Availability is from 2013.
- Youth with Severe MDE who Received Some Consistent Treatment is the same time periods (2010-2014) for both ranking and therefore did not affect ranking change.
- Adults with Disability who Could Not See a Doctor Due to Costs is from 2012.
The connecting lines point to several changes among those states that have significant movement in ranking.
Wisconsin moved from 8th to 35th. Indiana moved from 19th to 45th. Oklahoma moved from 41st to 24th. And New Mexico jumped from 44th to 22nd.
Adults Rankings
States with high rankings have lower prevalence of mental illness and higher rates of access to care for adults. Lower rankings indicate that adults have higher prevalence of mental illness and lower rates of access to care.
The 7 measures that make up the Adult Ranking include:
- Adults with Any Mental Illness (AMI)
- Adults with Dependence or Abuse of Illicit Drugs or Alcohol
- Adults with Serious Thoughts of Suicide
- Adults with AMI who Did Not Receive Treatment
- Adults with AMI Reporting Unmet Need
- Adults with AMI who are Uninsured
- Adults with Disability Who Could Not See a Doctor Due to Costs
Youth Ranking
States with high rankings have lower prevalence of mental illness and higher rates of access to care for youth. Lower rankings indicate that youth have higher prevalence of mental illness and lower rates of access to care.
The 7 measures that make up the Youth Ranking include:
- Youth with At Least One Past Year Major Depressive Episode (MDE)
- Youth with Dependence or Abuse of Illicit Drugs or Alcohol
- Youth with Severe MDE
- Youth with MDE who Did Not Receive Mental Health Services
- Youth with Severe MDE who Received Some Consistent Treatment
- Children with Private Insurance that Did Not Cover Mental or Emotional Problems
- Students Identified with Emotional Disturbance for an Individualized Education Program.
Prevalence of Mental Illness
The scores for the six prevalence and nine access to treatment measures make up the Prevalence and Access to Care Ranking.
The 6 measures that make up the Prevalence Ranking include:
- Adults with Any Mental Illness (AMI)
- Adults with Dependence or Abuse of Illicit Drugs or Alcohol
- Adults with Serious Thoughts of Suicide
- Youth with At Least One Past Year Major Depressive Episode (MDE)
- Youth with Dependence or Abuse of Illicit Drugs or Alcohol
- Youth with Severe MDE.
A high ranking on the Prevalence Ranking indicates a lower prevalence of mental health and substance use issues. States that rank 1-10 have lower rates of mental health and substance use problems compared to states that ranked 42-51.
Access to Care Map
Access to Care Ranking - 2011 vs. 2014
State and local level policies have the biggest impact on access to mental health care. Changes in these rankings may reflect policy changes that support constituencies who suffer from mental health problems. For example, states who passed laws supporting implementation of mental health parity laws and the Affordable Care Act show improvements in access to insurance rates. Those states that took aggressive policy changes, such as the implementation of The Mental Health Services Act in California, resulted in significant changes in access to care. The connecting lines point to several changes among those states that have significant movement in ranking. A lack of movement at the top could indicate long term commitment towards better mental health policies. While lack of movement at the bottom indicates continued neglect of the mental health needs of constituencies. States can compare policies among other better performing states of equivalent size, geography, culture, or political affiliation to identify potential policy changes to improve their numbers and rankings.
Change Over Time, 2011-2014
