Any serious illness, if allowed to persist, will only get worse until you find some way to treat it. That holds true if you have a bronchial infection, a broken bone or a mental illness. Thousands of people in Missouri are suffering from mental illnesses, and chances are you are one of them or you love someone who is. If that’s the case, then you are far from alone, as you’ll see below. Searching for Missouri mental health treatment can be daunting for a lot of reasons, but we’re here to help you understand that getting that needed treatment is the first step towards a happier and healthier life for you and your loved ones.
SoCal Empowered is an organization that provides residential mental health treatment for adults. We may not have Missouri mental health facilities per se, but we do have locations in Orange County, California and Idaho Falls, Idaho. We have worked with people from all over the map, so if you or a loved one need some time to get away from routine and work on your mental health, we’re ready to help you find the right resource.
We’ll begin by providing a statistical perspective on Missouri mental health. From there, we invite you to take a closer look at our organization either by perusing our website or by contacting us in-person. Regardless of how you take that first step, it’s critically important that you do so.
Missouri Mental Health Statistics
The first set of statistics we’d like to share concern the upward trend of people who report to the emergency department at hospitals because of mental health concerns. The Missouri Department of Mental Health publishes the data. According to the Missouri DMH, the following number of people in the state went to the hospital with mental health as the primary disorder in the last three years of available data:
2019
Mental: E.R. Services, then Discharged – 45,060
Mental: E.R. Services, then Admitted – 18,963
Mental: Admitted without E.R. Services – 24,055
2020
Mental: E.R. Services, then Discharged – 52,446
Mental: E.R. Services, then Admitted – 27,408
Mental: Admitted without E.R. Services – 37,130
2021
Mental: E.R. Services, then Discharged – 55,527
Mental: E.R. Services, then Admitted – 27,725
Mental: Admitted without E.R. Services – 36,424
The following number of people went to the hospital with mental illness recorded as the secondary disorder in the same years:
2019
Mental: E.R. Services, then Discharged – 119,760
Mental: E.R. Services, then Admitted – 66,647
Mental: Admitted without E.R. Services – 72,341
2020
Mental: E.R. Services, then Discharged – 163,740
Mental: E.R. Services, then Admitted – 103,861
Mental: Admitted without E.R. Services – 107,609
2021
Mental: E.R. Services, then Discharged – 165,561
Mental: E.R. Services, then Admitted – 107,609
Mental: Admitted without E.R. Services – 105,779
You can see the full report here.
What you’ll notice is that these numbers are trending upward. The pandemic can partially explain this uptick, but that’s far from the only relevant variable. Not to mention, hospitals are not necessarily set up to treat mental illnesses. Their primary function is to stabilize people who are in crisis. From there, it’s up to the people who are struggling to find proper treatment.
More Missouri Mental Health Statistics
While the state-level report is informative – and troubling – there is other information available. The National Alliance on Mental Illness, or NAMI, publishes data relating to mental illness across the United States. They break it down by state, and below you’ll find more troubling statistics regarding Missouri mental health:
- Nearly 1 million adults in Missouri struggle with some type of mental illness.
- In February of 2021, nearly 40 percent of all adults in Missouri reported having suffered from some types of anxiety or depression symptoms.
- More than 250,000 adults in Missouri suffer from what is known as “serious” mental illness, or an illness that interferes with a person’s ability to function on a day-day basis.
- 219,000 Missouri adults experienced suicidal ideation between 2020 and 2021. 1,230 people took their own lives during this timeframe.
- 1,871,902 people in Missouri live in a community that does not have enough mental health professionals.
Missouri Mental Health Rankings
Another organization, known as Mental Health America, or MHA, publishes annual rankings of states based on the overall status of the mental health of their residents. You can find that full report here, and Missouri did not place well. See below:
- On an overall basis, Missouri ranked 38th out of the 50 states and the District of Columbia with regards to mental health.
- Missouri ranked 42nd based on the percentage of adults suffering from any type of mental illness.
- Missouri ranked 41st in the overall percentage of people who experienced suicidal ideation.
Simply put, Missouri is not just struggling with mental health, but instead it faces what could accurately be described as an all-out crisis.
How SoCal Empowered Can Help
If nearly 1 million people in Missouri were suffering from any other type of illness, the public would be calling for a response. Unfortunately, those who need Missouri mental health treatment are going to have to handle these situations on an individual basis. Fortunately, however, there are options available for treatment.
The first place you should consider looking for help is through your health insurance policy. Most policies these days provide for mental health treatment benefits. SoCal Empowered works with several national and regional insurance carriers on an in-network basis. This includes Anthem Blue Cross Blue Shield of Missouri. We also work with several other insurance carriers on an out-of-network basis.
If you’re not sure how to take that step, we can handle that for you. All you need to do is contact us, and if we think a stay at one of our facilities is right for your situation, we will deal directly with your insurance company for you. That will allow us to determine coverage before you commit to anything.
The first step, though, is that initial conversation. Contact one of our mental health professionals today to get the process of dealing with this problem started.
