Mental health issues affect one in every four Americans and have devastating costs associated with it. Behavioral health disorders are the leading cause for disability with anxiety disorders and depression playing a significant factor.
While most adults do visit their physicians on a more frequent basis for physicals, they tend to ignore the problems associated with the brain until it takes a toll in their daily lives. The problem with placing your mental health on the backburner is that behavioral health issues can be incredibly costly to treat if not detected in time.
Similar to ignoring a prolonged stabbing pain in your kidneys, a behavioral health disorder will only get worse over time if proper action isn’t taken. What could have been a mild depression could become chronic depression if the right coping methods aren’t instilled within the psyche of the patient.
Social Ignorance to Mental Health
Professor Barbara Sahakian, a leading UK neuroscientist believes that people take their mental health for granted. Society is largely ignorant to behavioral health issues mainly because those affected, often do not show physical symptoms, but rather slight changes in their behavior, which over time can become problematic in their ‘day-to-day’ activities.
Society has become much more hostile in nature and with inflated expectation in a fast-paced world; our psychological constructs are placed under a lot of stress. There are 10 times more people who suffer from depression these days compared to 1945. With facts like these, we cannot continue to ignore the importance of taking behavioral health more seriously.
It is important to educate the public on identifying signs of developing behavioral health disorders and more importantly, to act on time.
The Simple Solution
In order to effectively deal with this issue, we need to encourage regular behavioral health screenings to prevent potential problems. Fortunately, the advancement of technology makes this much simpler than it sounds.
Usually behavioral health screenings include a series of questions relating to one’s eating and drinking habits, lifestyle and overall mental wellness. Based on the responses, medical professionals can identify patterns that belong to a mental disorder.
With mobile devices in the hands of nearly one third of the world’s population, these “tests” can be easily administered through familiar user interaction such as tablets. What’s more refreshing is that these ‘questions’ could potentially be formatted into interactive games where the choices the user makes will indicate the answers within the test.
M3 offers software that can be administered in the waiting room of your family physician.
What This Could Mean for Society?
The costs associated with behavioral health issues around the world is quite shocking. According to the CDC, depression costs the US roughly $17-$44 Billion dollars each year, which translates to about 200 million lost workdays.
Around the world, over 1,000,000 people commit suicide each year meaning that while behavioral health issues are non-communicable diseases, they do have a very real impact on mortality and economic costs to society as a whole.
With timely detection, many behavioral health disorders can be treated with basic coping methods; however left untreated, the problem escalates and effects not only the individual, but many other aspects of society.
Integrating Behavioral Health and Physical Health
Behavioral health screenings can be administered in primary care, while waiting for routine checkups. By incorporating a behavioral health screening with your annual physical, you not only begin to take preventative steps to ensure your mental health, but also create a measurable analysis of your overall mental wellbeing.
This information will help provide real statistics for those affected by behavioral health issues and ensure proper treatment is provided to those who need it.
While the economic benefits of implementing these changes are quite amazing, the biggest benefit will come to those who suffer from behavioral health illnesses. It only takes a small step to make a big difference.
