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Thank You Delaware!

Continue to support NAMI Delaware and the walk. The website will be available until July 1st.

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See New Spring 2010 Newsletter

NAMI-DE Membership

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State Statistics: Delaware

Mental Illness Is Common

• Of Delaware’s approximately 900,000 residents, close to 29,000 adults live with serious mental illnessⁱ and about 9,000 children live with serious mental health conditions.ⁱⁱ

Untreated Mental Illness has Deadly and Costly Consequences

• In 2006, 91 Delawareans died by suicide.ⁱⁱⁱ Suicide is almost always the result of untreated or undertreated mental illness.
• Nationally, we lose one life to suicide every 15.8 minutes. Suicide is the eleventh-leading cause of death overall and is the third-leading cause of death among youth and young adults aged 15-24.^iv
• During the 2006-07 school year, approximately 62 percent of Delaware students aged 14 and older living with serious mental health conditions who receive special education services dropped out of high school.^v

Public Mental Health Services are Inadequate to Meet Needs

• Delaware’s public mental health system provides services to only 19 percent of adults who live with serious mental illnesses in the state.^vi
• Delaware spent just $104 per capita on mental health agency services in 2006, or $88.0 million.^vii This was just 1.6 percent of total state spending that year.^viii
• In 2006, 50 percent of Delaware state mental health agency spending was on community mental health services; 48 percent was spent on state hospital care.^ix Nationally, an average of 70 percent is spent on community mental health services and 28 percent on state hospital care.^x

Criminal Justice Systems Bear a Heavy Burden

• In 2006, 303 children were incarcerated in Delaware’s juvenile justice system.^xi Nationally, approximately 70 percent of youth in juvenile justice systems experience mental health disorders, with 20 percent experiencing a severe mental health condition.^xii
• In 2008, approximately 1,000 adults with mental illnesses were incarcerated in prisons and jails in Delaware.^xiii

Many Residents Rely on Public Services for Needed Care

• Approximately 12.9 percent of Delawareans are enrolled in Medicaid.^xiv
• Approximately 95,000 Delawareans are uninsured.^xv

Housing is Unaffordable for People who Rely on SSI or SSDI

• The average rent for a studio apartment in Delaware is 109 percent of the average Supplemental Security Income (SSI) payment, making housing unaffordable for adults living with serious mental illness who rely on SSI.^xvi

References

NAMI-DE Speaks

Read NAMI-DE's advocacy positions

NAMI-DE recently updated its Public Policy Agenda to include current issues. You will find the full Public Policy Statement and Gubernatorial Candidate responses to questions posed by NAMI-DE concerning DPC and the state of the mental health system in Delaware. 

NAMI-DE Presentations

• SALUTE TO THE VOLUNTEERS VIDEO