For decades, the United States has consistently failed to provide essential mental health and substance use care to Americans. A central reason is that the people integral to delivering care are not accessible to the individuals and families when and where they need them.
An epidemic of untreated mental illness is ravaging American communities today, fueled by worsening risk factors like loneliness, isolation, addiction, and screen dependence. At one end of the problem is a persistent nationwide shortage of trained mental health professionals. At the other is the reluctance of patients — especially patients from underserved communities — to seek help at all, a factor research suggests may be an even larger contributor to our gaping access gap.