In his 2022 State of the Union address, President Biden outlined an ambitious plan
for supporting public mental health in the U.S., which he said faces an unprecedented
mental health crisis.
1
To support that claim, he cited statistics showing that during the peak of the pandemic,
nearly 40% of Americans experienced symptoms of anxiety and depression, whereas access
to mental health treatment remains poor, particularly for African American and Latino
individuals. He also cited emerging evidence of the harms of social media use on the
mental health of adolescents and young adults, echoing recent comments from the Surgeon
General.
2
Yet, just a few days before Biden's address, the Centers for Disease Control and
Prevention (CDC) released a report that stated that the overall rate of suicide in
the U.S. declined in 2020, the second consecutive year of a decline in suicide deaths.
3
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REFERENCES
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- Drug overdose deaths in the U.S. Top 100,000 annually.Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, National Center for Health Statistics, 2021 (Updated November 17. Accessed March 20, 2022)
Facts about suicide. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, National Center for Injury Prevention and Control, 2022. https://www.cdc.gov/suicide/facts/index.html/. Updated May 24, 2022. Accessed March 20, 2022.
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H.R.1667 - Dr. Lorna Breen Health Care Provider Protection Act, 117th Congress (2022). https://www.congress.gov/bill/117th-congress/house-bill/1667?q=%7B%22search%22%3A%5B%22HR±1667%22%5D%7D&s=2&r=1. Accessed April 20, 2022.
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- Telepsychiatry and other cutting-edge technologies in COVID-19 pandemic: bridging the distance in mental health assistance.Int J Clin Pract. 2020; 75: e13716https://doi.org/10.1111/ijcp.13716
- How mental health care should change as a consequence of the COVID-19 pandemic.Lancet Psychiatry. 2020; 7: 813-824https://doi.org/10.1016/S2215-0366(20)30307-2
- Studying suicide from the life course perspective: implications for prevention.Br J Psychiatry. 2005; 187: 206-208https://doi.org/10.1192/bjp.187.3.206
J Snook, Memoriam: board member, Dr. Frederick J. Frese. Arlington, VA: Treatment Advocacy Center. https://www.treatmentadvocacycenter.org/fixing-the-system/features-and-news/4019-in-memoriam-board-member-dr-frederick-j-frese. Published 2018. Accessed March 19, 2022.
- Report of a Surgeon General’s Working Meeting on the Integration of Mental Health Services and Primary Health Care: held on November 30-December 1, 2000, at the Carter Center: Atlanta, Georgia.Office of the Surgeon General (U.S.), Rockville, MD2001 (Accessed April 20, 2022)
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Published online: July 06, 2022
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© 2022 American Journal of Preventive Medicine. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
