Click here to find nonprofit organizations working to provide solutions for these issues.
Texas' health care system ranks 49th in the nation, according to the Commonwealth Fund, a non-partisan health care think tank. Texas ranked 51st in access to care, 46th in quality of care, and number 48 in avoidable hospital use. www.statesman.com/search/content/news/stories/local/06/16/16texashealthc.html
Almost one in five of Central Texas residents are living without health care, according to the Indigent Care Collaboration. The State Demographer at the Texas State Data Center estimated the total number of uninsured in Hays, Travis and Williamson Counties to be over 265,000 individuals in 2005. www.icc-centex.org/library/library.cfm
In the U.S., mental illness is the second leading cause of disability and premature death, just behind cardiovascular disease and ahead of cancer.
One in 10 people abuses alcohol or illegal or prescription drugs, significantly exacerbating mental illness and mood disorders.
The incidence of autism has tripled since 1980.
One in 17 Americans suffers from a serious mental illness.
The World Health Organization has reported that four of the 10 leading causes of disability in the U.S. and other developed countries are mental disorders. By 2020, major depressive illness will be the leading cause of disability in the world for women and children.
Mental illnesses are medical conditions that disrupt a person’s thinking, feeling, mood, ability to relate to others, and daily functioning. Just as diabetes is a disorder of the pancreas, mental illnesses are medical conditions that often result in a diminished capacity for coping with the ordinary demands of life.
Mental illnesses usually strike individuals in the prime of their lives, often during adolescence and young adulthood. All ages are susceptible, but the young and the old are especially vulnerable.
Approximately 40 percent of soldiers returning from Iraq and Afghanistan suffer from Post Traumatic Stress Distorder.
Stigma erodes confidence that mental disorders are real, treatable health conditions, creating attitudinal, structural and financial barriers to effective treatment and recovery.
Mental Illness: Changing Attitudes, Changing Lives