PERCENT OF INDIVIDUALS WHO REPORT FREQUENT MENTAL DISTRESS

June 4, 2019

The number of people who report that their mental health was not good represents an important indicator of the rate of mental health issues in a parish. This kind of self-reported data is a better indicator of community-wide mental health concerns than data on the (often smaller) number of people who are actively seeking or receiving mental health treatment. Frequent mental distress is when individuals reported ≥14 days in response to the question, “Thinking about your mental health, which includes stress, depression, and problems with emotions, for how many days during the past 30 days was your mental health not good?” ^[i]

Data reported here is prior to the COVID-19 pandemic. It is not yet clear how this unique and prolonged disaster will affect future rates of reports of frequent mental distress.