Questions Raised Regarding Wyoming's Mental Health Rating

NOTE: All studies should be taken with a grain, if not a hefty bag, of salt.

It is reported that over 50 million Americans have a mental illness. However, we must define what we consider a "mental illness." There will be a lot of disagreement on that.

If we take that 50 million number to be correct, according to this study, more than half (55%) of adults with a mental illness don’t receive treatment.

In some states, accessing mental health care may be more challenging because of high costs, too few mental health treatment centers, and lack of health insurance coverage.

This study treated all mental health issues as if they need treatment.

Does "treatment" mean therapy, medication, or both?

What if a person is perfectly capable of handling their mental health issues without any of those things, as so many people do? Think of the way we treat physical illnesses. If you were to be diagnosed with cancer you would start on a full treatment plan, however, for a simple head cold you may not see a physician at all.

Also, why does a prescribed treatment, whatever it might be, need to be paid for by insurance? There are other ways to pay for treatment.

To determine which states are worst for mental health care, Forbes Advisor compared all 50 states and Washington, D.C., across seven key metrics. We also examined two metrics to uncover the states with the highest and lowest rates of mental illness. (Forbs Magazine).

There are many questions and obvious flaws in the metrics for this study.

Nonetheless, using their metric, let's see what they have concluded.

Here are the states that are worse and best for those with mental health issues.

They claim Texas tops the list for worst while Vermont is the best state for mental health care.

Wyoming Ranks 8th in the nation.

Wyoming is fifth worst in the nation for three of the metrics that we considered: Percentage of adults with any mental illness who did not receive mental health treatment in the past year (61.7%), percentage of adults with any mental illness who are uninsured (18%) and percentage of children with private health insurance that doesn’t cover mental or emotional problems (12.7%).
Wyoming is home to the eighth-highest percentage of adults with a cognitive disability who could not see a doctor in the past 12 months due to cost (32.94%). (Forbs Magazine).

Seven of the 10 worst states for mental health care are located in the South, including Texas, Mississippi, Alabama, Georgia, Florida, South Carolina, and Tennessee.

Seven of the 10 best states for mental health care are in the East, including Vermont, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Pennsylvania, Connecticut, Maine, and West Virginia.

Montana tops the list of states with the highest prevalence of mental illness; New Jersey has the lowest rate of mental illness.