Some Fast Facts about mental illness from NAMI- National Alliance on Mental Illness  Spring 2010

1. The world Health Organization predicts that by 2020, mental illness will be the second leading cause of disability worldwide, after heart disease.
2. Major mental disorders cost the nation at least $193 billion annually in lost earnings alone.  According to a new study funded by the National Institutes of Health’s National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH)
3. Half of all life time cases of mental illness begin by age 14, three quarters. By age 24.  Treating cases early could reduce enormous disability, before mental illnesses become more severe.
4. One in four adults experiences a diagnosable mental disorder in any given year, including our returning troops.  One in 10 children has a serious mental or emotional disorder.
5. Suicide is the third leading cause of death for America’s youth ages 15-24.  More youth and young adults die from suicide than from cancer, heart disease, AIDS, birth defects, stroke, pneumonia influenza, chronic lung disease combined.  The vast majority of those who die by suicide have mental illness- often undiagnosed or untreated.
6. Our jails and prisons are now the largest psychiatric wards in the nation, housing well over 350,000 inmates with serious mental illness compared to approximately 70,000 patients living serious mental illness in hospitals.
7. One out of every five community hospital stays involves primary or secondary diagnosis of mental illness.