It’s a health condition that can dictate day-to-day living. And millions are up against it.
According to the National Alliance on Mental Illness one in five Americans experience mental illness in a given year.
Yet government data also shows nearly 150 million people live in towns where mental health care providers are hard to come by.
The Department of Health and Human Services has located more than 6,000 areas across the country experiencing a mental health care provider shortage. For many of these areas, that means the population-to-psychiatrist ratio exceeds 30,000 to one.
That gap leaves 27 million adults, and more than 60 percent of youth who suffer from major depression untreated.
