Mental Health Support and Self-Help Groups

Mental Health Support and Self-Help Groups

In Brief Combined 2005 to 2008 data indicate that an annual average of 2.4 million adults aged 18 or older (1.1 percent of the population in that age group) received support from a mental health self-help group for their emotions, nerves, or mental health problems in the past year

Among persons who received support from a mental health self-help group in the past year, the majority (61.2 percent) were female, 89.4 percent were over the age of 25, 75.2 percent were white, and 46.8 percent were employed full time

Two thirds (65.6 percent) of adults who received support from mental health self-help groups also received traditional treatment (i.e., inpatient, outpatient, or prescription medication) in the past year; an estimated 829,000 users of self-help groups (34.4 percent) did not receive past year traditional mental health treatment

About 5.5 percent of the 28.8 million adults who received any traditional type of mental health treatment in the past year also received support from a mental health self-help group in that time period


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Mental Health Support and Self-Help Groups