Milestones In Mental Health

1932: Suicide rate reached 22 per 100000 people -- an all-time high in U.S. history. Thought to be the outcome of the Great Depression.
1946: The National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) established within the National Institutes of Health. There, it launches a first-of-a-kind, comprehensive research program on mental illness and health.
1996: The Mental Health Parity Act (MHPA), a legislation signed into law by President Clinton, requires parity of mental health benefits with medical and surgical benefits, however, with limited scope and poor enforcement.
1999: The first White House Conference on Mental Health and the first Secretarial Initiative on Mental Health prepared under the aegis of the Department of Health and Human Services.
2004: globally, suicide tall exceeds lives taken by murder and war put together (WHO), expected to reach 1.5 million in 2020.
2009: U.S. military suicide deaths exceed combat fatalities in Iraq and Afghanistan
2009: Drugs exceeded motor vehicle accidents as a cause of death for the first time since the government started tracking drug-induced deaths in 1979, killing at least 37,485 people nationwide (U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention). This is the first time that drugs have accounted for more fatalities than traffic accidents
2009: Suicides exceeded motor vehicle accidents as the cause of death for the first time since 1924 (16.4 suicides and 16.1 traffic deaths per 100k) killing 36,547 people nationwide in 2009, which is also the highest rate of suicide since 1993, 12.0 per 100,000. While car accidents had the lowest rate since 1920, 11.1 per 100k in 2009 vs. 11.4 in 1920.
2010: The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act signed into law by President Obama, The biggest Civil Right legislature since the 1964 CRA. Expands insurance coverage to 30 million Americans.
2010: Army suicides hit all time high and continue to rise.
2010: Depression is the #1 cause of disability in the United States.
2020: Depression expected to reach #1 cause of disability in the world.


NOTE:
Suicide statistics grossly underestimate the actual rate of suicide. Many suicides are hidden among other causes of death, such as single car, single driver road traffic accidents, unwitnessed drownings, accidents, and other undetermined deaths. In addition, suicide is thought to be underreported for multiple reasons including stigma, religious concerns, and social attitudes. The psychological and social impact of suicide on the family and community is enormous.