Mental Health

CDC’s provisional data for 2022 show a record high of 49,369 suicide deaths, coming after modest declines in 2019 and 2020. In 2022, provisional data indicates the highest number of gun-related suicides on record; increases in firearm suicides are driving the increases in overall suicide deaths in recent years. Suicide death rates in 2021 were highest among American Indian and Alaska Native people, males, and people who live in rural areas. Suicide deaths are increasing fastest among people of color, younger people, and those who live in rural areas with many groups seeing increases of 30% or more from 2011 to 2021. Suicide death rates varied considerably by state in 2021, as did the rate of change between 2011 and 2021.

More than 49,000 people died by suicide across the country in 2022, a record number driven largely by an increase in the number of firearm-related deaths, a new KFF analysis of provisional CDC data shows. Firearm-related suicide deaths have been increasing in recent years and are now the most common…

Firearms were responsible for 20 percent of all child and teen deaths in the U.S. for both 2020 and 2021, compared to an average of less than 2 percent in similarly large and wealthy nations, according to a new KFF analysis. This puts the U.S. far ahead of peer nations…

Firearms were responsible for 20 percent of all child and teen deaths in the U.S. for both 2020 and 2021, compared to an average of less than 2 percent in similarly large and wealthy nations. This puts the U.S. far ahead of peer nations in child and teen firearm deaths.

Since its launch in July 2022, the 988 national suicide and crisis hotline has received about 4 million contacts, a 33 percent increase from the year before, according to a new KFF analysis of publicly available data through May 2023. The contacts include more than 2.6 million calls, over 740,000…

A new KFF analysis finds that 24 percent more buprenorphine, a medication to treat opioid use disorder, was dispensed in 2022 than in 2019, the year before the pandemic brought a surge of opioid overdose deaths – and a focus on how to expand access and treatment. This upward trend…

Federal policies governing substance use disorder treatment have undergone rapid changes during the pandemic; however, the extent to which these changes can address the surge in opioid overdose deaths is unclear. Some of these policy adjustments are permanent, while others could revert to pre-pandemic regulations. In this brief, we examine the following 5 key federal policies and implications for access and treatment for OUD.

In this report, we examine LGBT+ people’s needs for and experiences accessing mental health care by analyzing data from a nationally representative 2022 KFF survey with a large sample of LGBT+ adults.

This analysis finds that privately insured adults who were treated for depression and/or anxiety in 2021 spent almost twice as much on annual out-of-pocket costs compared to enrollees who were not treated for a mental health diagnosis.

Use of digital behavioral health services increased during the COVID-19 pandemic when in-person visits were limited. This brief examines how different types of mental health apps are used, how federal policies during the pandemic affected the scope of services they could provide, and key issues to watch.