The 20 best and worst states for mental health care

With mental health issues on the rise, finding accessible and timely care is yet another hurdle for those in need.

Nearly half of Americans are struggling with anxiety, and 39% reported symptoms of depression at the end of 2021. Yet access to therapy has become increasingly challenging: the national average wait time for mental health care is 48 days, according to data from the National Council for Mental Wellbeing. Eighty-seven percent of therapists say they could not offer weekly appointments to patients who needed them, according to a 2020 survey by the National Union of Healthcare Workers.

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“The mental health system is so fundamentally broken that just de-stigmatization and getting more people into the system isn’t going to go well,” says Russell Glass, CEO of Ginger, an on-demand mental health care support platform. “So there’s going to be a period of time, as more and more people access care, that wait times are going to be longer and resources are going to be hard to find.”

Yet some states are faring better than others. Insurance provider HealthCareInsider ranked all 50 states for the best and worst locations for mental health care, based on factors like the number of adults reporting mental health issues, out-of-pocket costs for those seeking care and providers per capita.

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Their analysis found that East Coast states like Maryland, Massachusetts, Vermont and Pennsylvania all ranked in the top 10 best states overall, while southern states like Mississippi, South Carolina and Alabama fell to the bottom of the list. Vermont had the most mental health care providers per capita, receiving a score of 30 out of 100, while South Carolina ranked last, with a 4.03 out of 100.

Separate analysis by the Kaiser Family Foundation found that New Jersey is the most able to meet the mental health needs of their population, with 68.9% of the need met. Washington, D.C. is able to meet just 5.3% of the need, ranking last.

The HealthCareInsider data gave each state a total score out of 100. See which states ranked the best and worst, below: