Mental Health - Adult Self-reported Mental Distress: Percentage with Mental Distress (6+ days), 2017
DNA=Data not available.
**=Insufficient data.
Adult mental health issues range in a spectrum from day-to-day challenges with stress, anxiety, and "the blues", to persistent mental health challenges arising from chronic physical conditions such as diabetes, asthma, and obesity. to chronic clinically-diagnosable psychiatric morbidities such as anxiety disorders, schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, and depression, to serious life-threatening situations such as suicidal ideation and suicide attempt, which sometimes result from a combination of the mental and physical health challenges mentioned above. A host of measures exist for assessing the mental health status of individuals, but characterizing the mental health status of the population is a relatively new field. If such an assessment can be done using a simple and non-invasive approach with a reasonable level of sensitivity and specificity, the resulting characterization of the population's mental health can help public health and mental health professionals better understand the distribution of mental health issues in the population and design better systems to help identify, address and mitigate these issues before they become more serious. Among measures that have been suggested by the CDC as potential tools for assessing population well-being and mental health is the frequency with which people experience poor mental health. This measure is based on the single question, "How many days during the past 30 days was your mental health not good?" Respondents who report that they experienced 14 or more days when their mental health was "not good" were classified as experiencing "Frequent Mental Distress" ("FMD"). Although FMD is not a clinical diagnosis, evidence suggests that it is associated with a person's mental health status. A 2011 study by Bossarte et al. concluded that 6 or more days of poor mental health ("Mental Distress") could be used as a valid and reliable indicator of generalized mental distress with strong associations to both diagnosable depressive symptomology and serious mental illness.
The prevalence of Mental Distress in NM has consistently been similar to the overall US prevalence since 2004. Before 2011 (when the survey stratification methodology changed), the prevalence of Mental Distress among adults increased slightly from 16.8% in 2004 to 18.5% in 2010. Since 2011, the prevalence of Mental Distress in NM has remained relatively stable. In 2016, 18.6% of adults in NM reported 6 or more days of poor mental health in the past 30 days.
The Department of Health Epidemiology and Response Division conducts ongoing surveillance for indicators of mental health among students and adults in every county of New Mexico. The Human Services Department recently modernized the New Mexico Medicaid system by integrating physical and behavioral health services which will help treat an individual in a more holistic manner.
For reviews of evidence-based practices, please see: -US Preventive Services Task Force: [http://www.uspreventiveservicestaskforce.org/] -Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's Community Guide: [http://www.thecommunityguide.org/index.html] -Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration's National Registry of Evidence-Based Programs and Practices: [https://www.samhsa.gov/nrepp]
Mental Health - Adult Depression
Mental Health - Youth Feeling Sad/Hopeless
These data are from the NM Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System (BRFSS), a random-digit-dialed telephone survey of adults 18 years and older. It is conducted annually by the NM Department of Health Survey Unit in collaboration with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). Responses are weighted to reflect the general New Mexico adult population by age, sex, ethnicity, geographic region, marital status, education level, home ownership and type of phone ownership. (#) Values are unstable (**) Data suppressed due to small numbers The county-level BRFSS data used for this indicator report were weighted to be representative of the New Mexico Health Region populations. Had the data been weighted to be representative of each county population, the results may have been different.
Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System Survey Data, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, together with New Mexico Department of Health, Injury and Behavioral Epidemiology Bureau. U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), BRFSS Prevalence and Trends Data, [https://www.cdc.gov/brfss/brfssprevalence].
Measure Description for Mental Health - Adult Self-reported Mental Distress
Definition: Percentage of NM residents 18 years or older experiencing "Mental Distress", defined as answering 6 days or more to the question, "Now thinking about your mental health, which includes stress, depression, and problems with emotions, for how many days during the past 30 days was your mental health NOT good?"
Numerator: The number of survey respondents who reported "Mental Distress", defined as poor mental health for 6 or more of the past 30 days.
Denominator: Total number of survey respondents except those with missing, "Don't know/Not sure," and "Refused" responses.
Adult Mental Distress (exits this report)
Mental Health Epidemiology, Epidemiology and Response Division, New Mexico Department of Health, 1190 S. Saint Francis Drive, Room N1320, P.O. Box 26110, Santa Fe, NM, 87502. Contact Carol Moss, by telephone at (505) 476-1440 or email to Carol.Moss@state.nm.us.