Utah ranks in top 10 of best states to live in for happiness and mental health
Numerous factors influence your mental health, but have you considered the significant role geography can play?
The U.S. mental health crisis takes a toll on different populations around the country for many reasons. Health care staffing company Soliant Health released its research and rankings of U.S. states from best to worst concerning happiness and mental health in 2023.
Here are the top 10 best states to live in regarding mental health:
Nebraska.
Connecticut.
Massachusetts.
Minnesota.
Rhode Island.
New Jersey.
Vermont.
Colorado.
North Dakota.
Utah.
In order to determine where each state fell in the rankings, researchers looked at factors including how many mental health providers were available in the area, suicide rates (ages 15-25), how often people were experiencing “bad mental health days,” unemployment rate and violent crime. Additional factors including air pollution and exercise were also focused on.
West Virginia placed 50th, with the “highest average number of mentally unhealthy days reported by residents in the past 30 days,” followed by Alabama and then Arkansas, the research reported.
Socioeconomic status’ effect on mental health
Mental health challenges can interact with social issues in complex ways.
According to Axios, “Addressing the root causes of the mental and behavioral health crises will require taking into account a wide array of socioeconomic and health factors, and in many cases will mean tackling much broader societal inequities.”
Lower-income communities often face heightened struggles with mental health due to a complex interplay of individual, societal, economic and systemic factors.
Receiving less education correlates with the likelihood of a person having a potential drug overdose in their lifetime, a study published in JAMA Network found.
“As the opioid crisis has transitioned to fentanyl and polysubstance use, overdose deaths have become more prevalent in groups with lower socioeconomic status, potentially exacerbating existing life-expectancy disparities,” the study said.
The American Addiction Center reported that around 22% of people with anxiety disorder will self-medicate with drugs or alcohol to cope with their symptoms.
Related
How are youth at risk?
The Soliant Health report said that “disconnected youth” played an important role in the ranking of each state.
“Disconnected youths are at an increased risk of developing poor mental health, with increased risks of violence, alcohol, drug use and emotional deficits,” the report said.
Adding that “This correlation is further supported by several studies showing that disconnected youths will grow to have an increased rate of unemployment, poverty, and mental health disorders.”
Disconnected youth include kids that are “homeless, in foster care, involved in the justice system, or are neither employed nor enrolled in an educational institution,” and make up about 6.7 million of the population of young people ages 14-24, according to the United States Department of Agriculture.
Youth who are disconnected not only struggle with personal support but also pose economic and political challenges to society when they don’t achieve their potential as active contributors.
This can arise from their increased likelihood of depending on government assistance and their potential involvement in criminal behaviors.
“Six of the 10 states with the lowest rate of disconnected youth achieved a spot in the overall top 10 best states for mental health,” per Soliant Health.
How is health care helping?
Donald J. Parker, president of Behavioral Health Transformation Services at Hackensack Meridian Health, told Fox News that more efforts need to be implemented in schools to help teach young people how to cope and strengthen their mental health early on.
“Our hospital network just recently launched a collaboration with the Society for the Prevention of Teen Suicide to train 2,000 of our nurses to identify the signs of potential suicidal behaviors when kids arrive at our emergency rooms and to get them the right services to prevent self-harm,” Parker said.
Adding that, “The idea, which is gaining more traction in mental health care, is to take a more comprehensive approach to mental health, instead of being purely reactive.”
If you or someone you know is in crisis, please contact the 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline by calling or texting 988 or chatting online at 988lifeline.org.
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