TOPEKA — Kansas ranked worst in the nation for mental illness prevalence and mental health care access in a 2023 report, but new data shows the state’s ranking significantly improved this year.
An annual report from the national nonprofit Mental Health America examining the climate of mental health in the United States uses 15 benchmarks to evaluate states’ efforts to address the need for mental health services among youths and adults. Kansas jumped from 51st place in 2023 to 22nd this year. While some of Kansas’ statistics improved, young people experienced depression and suicidal ideation at higher rates.
About 24% of adults in Kansas reported they have a mental illness. Slightly more than 5% of Kansas adults, or 116,000 Kansans, had serious thoughts of suicide, which was a roughly 23,000-person decrease from the previous reporting year.
About 20% of Kansas youths had a major depressive episode, which amounted to about 50,000 kids. Kansas’ ranking in this category improved in the 2024 report, but the number of youth who had at least one episode in the past year actually increased by 7,000.
The same number of young people said they had a substance use disorder in each report year — 22,000 — but Kansas’ rank changed from 50th to 22nd between the two reporting periods.
Get mental health help in Lawrence
These resources are available 24/7 if you or someone you know needs immediate mental health help:
• HeadQuarters Kansas suicide prevention network: Call 785-841-2345 or 988
• Bert Nash Community Mental Health Center: 785-843-9192
• Treatment and Recovery Center of Douglas County: 1000 W. Second St. in Lawrence; trcdgks.org
• National Suicide Prevention Lifeline: 1-800-273-8255 (TALK); veterans, press 1
According to the report, about 13% of youth had serious thoughts of suicide, on par with the national average, but the number of those who had suicidal thoughts rose from an estimated 30,000 kids to an estimated 32,000 kids between the 2023 and 2024 reports. Again, the state’s rank decreased but numbers increased.
Overall, Kansas ranked 35th in the 2024 report for access to care, which was an increase from the 48th spot in the 2023 report.
Elaine Johannes, a Kansas State University associate professor who specializes in community health, credited the Legislature for expanding access to mental health care through Certified Community Behavioral Health Clinics, she said in a Sept. 16 news release from the university.
Kansas now has 26 community clinics after Gov. Laura Kelly signed the legislation in 2021.
“As Kansans, I think we should still be asking ourselves if there are ways that we can create more resilience in our communities so that more people can be connected to mental health care,” Johannes said in the news release.
While solutions such as the clinics are working, the state’s mental health system, like many others across the country, is struggling. Kansas grapples with a workforce shortage that often leaves rural communities, Kansans in poverty and those with a history of homelessness or incarceration with fewer care options and resources, said Isaac Johnson, the operations manager for the National Alliance on Mental Illness for Kansas.
“The resources we have are so minimal and so strained,” said Johnson, who is also a social worker.
Nearly every Kansas county has a mental health care workforce shortage, according to the U.S. Health Resources & Services and Administration. As a result, people don’t get the help they need, Johnson said.
The state’s ranchers, farmers and agricultural workers often face mental health burdens out of their control, but they’re the ones who have the most difficulty accessing care, said Itzel Moya, a social worker and NAMI’s assisted outpatient treatment project director.
“The rural and frontier areas of the state are often left behind when talking about mental health care in Kansas,” Moya wrote in an email. “It is more difficult to find professionals who are interested in living in these areas, access to internet may be limited for some, and stigma is still present in these areas.”
Moya said believe’s Kansas’ ranking improvement is positive, but there is work to be done, she said.
Kansas is making a difference in access to care and mental illness prevention, with solutions that include community clinics and school-based mental health intervention teams, which are seeing increases in funding. But, according to Johnson, real change requires looking at mental health care holistically.
The 2024 report, which is a snapshot in time rather than an indication of trends, shows Kansas ranked 22nd among the 50 states and Washington, D.C., a major jump from the previous year. Most of the 2024 report’s data was collected in 2022, while 2023’s report contains data collected in 2020, which included gaps due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
The ranking is a cumulative score based on survey results from the U.S. Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, or SAMHSA, but it’s limited. SAMHSA’s survey doesn’t collect information from people experiencing unsheltered homelessness, active-duty military personnel or those institutionalized in jails or hospitals.
“As a result, these data likely represent the minimum number of individuals experiencing behavioral health conditions and/or lacking access to care in each state,” the report said.
Kansas Reflector is part of States Newsroom, a network of news bureaus supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Kansas Reflector maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Sherman Smith for questions: info@kansasreflector.com. Follow Kansas Reflector on Facebook and Twitter.
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