Mental Health in a Pandemic: Data Suggests Greater Need for Services and Resources in Connecticut
"How are you?" This seemingly standard question has become increasingly harder to answer. Every day, we see or experience the horrific implications surrounding Covid-19, whether it's death rates, rising confirmed cases, skyrocketing job loss, or simply not being able to hug a friend or family member.
We can't fully understand our residents' health and well-being during this time without examining mental health. The Household Pulse Survey, a U.S. Census Bureau survey conducted through the end of July, can help us get a picture of the challenges Connecticut residents are facing. See more about this survey and the methodology for this post at the end.
Overall Mental Health
The annual Behavioral Health Risk Factor Surveillance System (BRFSS) survey suggests that 16% of people in Connecticut have been depressed. Also, over any 30 days, the average number of days that adults in Connecticut feel their mental health is "not good" is almost 3.8 days.
The Household Pulse survey, by comparison, shows that 44% of people living in Connecticut have felt down, depressed, or hopeless for at least "several days" in the past seven days, and 44% have been unable to stop or control worrying at least "several days" in the past seven days.
While these numbers aren't entirely comparable since the questions are slightly different, they suggest a trend: individuals are experiencing symptoms of depression and anxiety at a much higher rate than usual.
These responses do not necessarily mean that half of the adults in Connecticut "are" depressed or have "clinical depression." However, it does suggest an increased need for services and resources to 1) improve their mental and emotional well-being, and 2) ensure they can provide for themselves and their families.
By focusing on demographic characteristics, we can identify emerging patterns that are comparable to the BRFSS.
Mental Health Among Individuals by Racial and Ethnic Identity
When looking at the feelings of depression among Connecticut's residents by racial and ethnic groups, Hispanic individuals are reporting the highest rate of depression symptoms.
Compared to the rate found in the BRFSS, Connecticut's Hispanic population experienced depression at 16% in 2018. In contrast, during this pandemic, this population is experiencing depression symptoms at 306% the usual rate.
Mental Health by Household Income Level
Individuals in households with lower incomes experience depression at a higher rate than in households with higher incomes, according to the BRFSS. This trend continues to persist during the pandemic.
Among households making less than $25,000, 16% report feelings of depression nearly every day, and 17% report feelings of anxiety almost every day. Among household earning between $25,000 to under $35,000, 17% report feelings of depression nearly every day, and 21% of anxiety almost every day.
People with lower incomes express feelings of depression and anxiety at a higher rate, as seen in the chart below, and they also are experiencing them more often.
Mental Health and Age
The Household Pulse survey also shows that young people are experiencing symptoms of depression and anxiety at a higher rate than other age groups.
Most notably, it reports that 22% of 18-29-year-olds feel "down, depressed, or hopeless" nearly every day. Young adults also express feeling unable to stop or control worrying almost every day at a higher rate, with 18% of 18-29-year-olds and 14% of 30-39-year-olds feeling this way. The majority of young people experience these feelings several days to every day, as you can see in the chart below.
Seeking Services
This survey suggests a tremendous need in Connecticut for mental health support. Despite all of this data, searches for mental-health-related services using 2-1-1 of Connecticut were lower in the past 90 days compared to 90 days prior.
Connecticut residents may seek mental health treatment through their primary care physicians rather than calling 211, or residents may be opting not to seek treatment. The survey results show that Connecticut residents are delaying medical treatment more as the pandemic continues, which may be another factor.
What can you do if you're making decisions about allocating resources or developing services in response?
As we noted at the beginning of this post, this survey aims to provide data for state and local decision-makers and service providers to use in decision-making. With that in mind, we hope that this analysis can help different organizations in different ways:
Foundations may consider funding innovative, accessible mental health services to some of the groups disproportionately experiencing depression and anxiety symptoms.
Service providers may use the data to inform program design or to include in grant applications.
Access Mental Health Resources
The National Alliance on Mental Illness has compiled a page of resources, including information about teletherapy, medication, and mental health apps, among other topics. They also have a page devoted to resources in the Covid-19 pandemic context about where to go for support, resources if you're having financial trouble, or what you can do for a loved one in the criminal justice system. Mental Health America has resources for supporting yourself or loved ones depending on your particular situation (first responder, older adults, individuals in the LGBTQ+ community) during this pandemic.
Explore the data
If you'd like to explore the data for yourself, you can access an interactive map or the data tables for the national data at the Household Pulse Survey website. You can review the survey items here. We will continue to explore the survey data for the public and policymakers in the weeks to come.
You also can explore the Substance Abuse and Prevention Data Portal, an interactive repository for behavioral health and related data. It contains over two hundred indicators. It was developed and is maintained by CTData with support from the Department of Mental Health and Addiction Services (DMHAS).
About the data
To explore mental health among Connecticut's residents, we used the U.S. Census Bureau's 6th week of Household Pulse Survey data, in conjunction with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System survey data. We also compared these numbers to 211Counts Connecticut data, which is "the first tool to provide real-time, searchable and visual presentations of data from 2-1-1 call centers across the nation."
The purpose of the Household Pulse Survey is to help the state and local communities recover from the pandemic. You can learn more about Connecticut's early survey results in our recent blog post. While we focus on mental health in this post, the survey covers many interesting and potentially useful topics. Each is disaggregated by categories such as age, income, race and ethnicity, employment, marital status, and presence of children, among others.
Internet and device availability for school children
Time spend in last week on home-based education
Employment status and sector of employment
Household food spending
Food sufficiency for households with children before and during the pandemic
Current health insurance status
Last months payment status for owner-occupied and renter-occupied housing units
Our guiding questions for this exploration included:
How has the rate of mental health changed since the pandemic started?
What groups are experiencing the highest burden of mental health challenges?
What is surprising in the survey data around mental health?
If your organization, institution, or municipality wants to use this data set to answer your specific questions to inform your decisions for Covid-19 response and recovery, please contact us for more information.
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