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A New Executive Order and the Intersection of Homelessness and Mental Illness

This brief examines data on homelessness and mental illness against the backdrop of President Trump’s executive order aimed at removing unhoused people from the streets and enabling more involuntary civil commitments for psychiatric institutional care. This approach could reverse a decades-long shift in treatment approaches for people with serious mental illnesses that moved people away from long-term psychiatric institutions toward community-based treatment settings.

At the Three-Year Mark, Demand for the 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline Continues to Grow

How Might Changes to the ACA Marketplace Impact Enrollees with Mental Health Conditions?

The Impact of Gun Violence on Children and Adolescents

Mental Health and Substance Use State Fact Sheets

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  • 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline: Two Years After Launch

    Issue Brief

    On July 16, 2022, the federally mandated crisis number, 988, became available to all landline and cell phone users at no charge. Since launch in July 2022, 988 has received 10.8 million calls, texts, and chats. In May 2024, monthly contacts exceeded half a million, up about one-third from a year ago and 80% since May 2022. Despite increased demand for 988 services, national answer rates improved and wait times decreased, though some gains slipped in the second year.

  • Loneliness and Social Support Networks: Findings from the KFF Survey of Racism, Discrimination and Health 

    Poll Finding

    The issues of loneliness and social isolation gained attention during the COVID-19 pandemic, and continue to be associated with poor mental and physical health conditions. One in six (15%) adults report feeling always or often lonely in the past year, with the highest shares among young adults ages 18-29. There is a strong relationship between feelings of loneliness, local support networks, and physical and mental health and well-being, but Black, Hispanic, and Asian adults are somewhat less likely to report strong local support networks compared to their White counterparts.

  • A Look at the Latest Alcohol Death Data and Change Over the Last Decade

    Issue Brief

    A KFF analysis of the latest data from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention finds that the national alcohol death rate has risen 70% in the past decade, accounting for 51,191 deaths in 2022 -- up from 27,762 deaths in 2012. The analysis has state-level data showing considerable variation in alcohol death rates across states. Deaths rose sharply during the pandemic, with the steepest increases among adults aged 26 to 44, American Indian and Alaska Native people, and females—all groups that experienced close to, or more than, a 100% rise in alcohol mortality rates since 2012.

  • Utilization of the 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline’s LGBTQ Service

    Issue Brief

    This analysis examines performance metrics to assess utilization of 988’s LGBTQ service (which SAMHSA refers to as the LGBTQI+ subnetwork), compared to usage of 988’s main service, from December 2023 to March 2024 (the most current and comprehensive data available). It finds high demand for the specialty services but also certain challenges (e.g. higher call abandonment rates and longer call wait times than for the main 988 service).

  • The Mental Health Crisis Within the Mental Health Crisis

    From Drew Altman

    In his new column, KFF CEO Drew Altman discusses how America’s mental health crisis affects families. The number of families experiencing a serious mental health-related event is large enough to constitute a crisis within the larger mental health crisis.

  • Examining New Medicaid Resources to Expand School-Based Behavioral Health Services

    Issue Brief

    In light of worsening mental health among youth, strategies have been implemented to improve access to behavioral health services in recent years, including expanding school-based care for students. Leveraging Medicaid to improve and address gaps in school-based behavioral health services has been a key strategy in recent years as youth mental health concerns have grown. Provisions from the Safer Communities Act of 2022 utilize Medicaid to expand both school-based health care and other mechanisms of youth behavioral health care. This issue brief explores the implementation of these provisions from the Safer Communities Act thus far, with a focus on the guidance issued from CMS.