July is National Minority Mental Health Awareness  Month. We will share information throughout the month on the mental health status of minority groups to shed light on the important issue and its correlation to achieving health equity for all. 

Mental and Behavioral Health Among Hispanics 

[US Dept of Health and Human Services Office of Minority Health] 

• The death rate from suicide for Hispanic men was four times the rate for Hispanic women, in 2018.
• However, the suicide rate for Hispanics is less than half that of the non-Hispanic white population.
• In 2019, suicide was the second leading cause of death for Hispanics, ages 15 to 34.¹
• Suicide attempts for Hispanic girls, grades 9-12, were 30 percent higher than for non-Hispanic white girls in the same age group, in 2019.
• In 2018, Hispanics were 50 percent less likely to have received mental health treatment as compared to non-Hispanic whites.
• Poverty level affects mental health status. Hispanics living below the poverty level, as compared to Hispanics over twice the poverty level, are twice as likely to report serious psychological distress.

MENTAL HEALTH STATUS

Serious psychological distress in the past year among adults 18 years of age and over, percentage, 2019
Hispanic	Non-Hispanic White	Hispanic / Non-Hispanic White Ratio
12.2	12.7	1.0

SAMHSA, 2020. Results from the 2019 National Survey on Drug Use and Health: Mental Health Detailed Tables. Table 10.43B

Serious psychological distress in the past 30 days among adults 18 years of age and over, percentage of poverty level, 2015-2016*
	Hispanic	Non-Hispanic White	Hispanic / Non-Hispanic White Ratio
Below 100%	6.8	12.1	0.6
100% - less than 200%	4.1	7.6	0.5
200% - less than 400%	2.6	3.1	0.8

Source: CDC, 2018. Health United States, 2019. Table 46.
https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/data/hus/hus17.pdf [PDF | 10.22MB]

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