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A Hidden Epidemic
Too Many Lives are
Affected by Mental Illness
Next time you are in a crowd, look at the people around you. Odds are, one in every five will have a mental health condition. Over the course of a lifetime, half of us will. That’s more people than will get cancer or diabetes. If it were a viral infection, we’d call it an epidemic.
No economic class is immune. But mental illness – often the result of traumatic experiences – disproportionately affects the poor.
In King County, the lower your income, the more likely you are to experience frequent mental distress – an important measure of mental health.
Nowhere is the impact of mental illness more concerning than when it affects youth.
One half of all chronic mental illness begins by age 14 and three quarters by age 24.
20% of children ages 13-18 nationwide have and/or previously had a seriously debilitating mental disorder.
28% of high school seniors in King County felt so sad or hopeless for two or more weeks that they stopped doing their usual activities.
70% of youth in the social justice system have at least one mental health condition.
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