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Over the past decade, the twin crises of the opioid overuse epidemic and COVID-19 pandemic, along with a number of troubling underlying indicators, have brought into sharp relief the need to reconsider how behavioral health care is delivered and financed across the country.

In 2019 and 2020, more than 50 million Americans experienced a mental illness, according to Mental Health America.[i] The National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI) found that suicides among children and young adults ages 10 to 24 rose 60 percent between 2007 and 2018. During that time, suicide became the second-leading cause of death for this age group.[ii] Overdose deaths involving opioids increased 36.8 percent from 2019 to 2020.[iii] Yet more than half of adults in the U.S. who live with mental illness do not receive treatment.[iv]

A new three-part snapshot report from the Association for Community Affiliated Plans (ACAP) examines the current landscape of behavioral health care across the nation and innovative efforts to improve treatment and access to care — including telehealth services, mobile crisis intervention systems, and school-based mental health services.  

Read the reports in full via the links to the right.

[i] Mental Health America. (2023). The State of Mental Health in America. Mhanational.org; Mental Health America. https://www.mhanational.org/issues/state-mental-health-america

[ii] National Alliance on Mental Illness. (2021). Annual Report 2021. nami.org. NAMI. https://www.nami.org/NAMI/media/NAMI-Media/PDFs/Financials/2021-NAMI-Annual-Report.pdf.

[iii] 2022 National Healthcare Quality and Disparities Report. Rockville, MD: Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality; October 2022. AHRQ Pub. No. 22(23)-0030.

[iv] Mental Health America.