South Carolina ranked as the eighth worst state for mental health care in the U.S. in a 2024 study published by Forbes from federal and mental health data.
The study looked at treatment centers and treatment quality in 50 states and the District of Columbia to determine which have the best overall care across seven metrics. Out of the top 10 worst states for mental health care, six are located in the South: Texas, Georgia, Alabama, Florida, Mississippi and South Carolina.
Data include the number of mental health treatment centers in the state, percentage of patients who do not receive treatment, percentage of treatment delayed by cost and percentage of patients who are uninsured.
According to the report, South Carolina has the fewest mental health treatment centers in the U.S. — 6.84 per 10,000 businesses. Additionally, the study showed there is a lack of people in the state’s workforce to operate these facilities and tend to patients.
A national issue
Dr. Kevin Gray, a psychiatrist who works at the Medical University of South Carolina, said mental health care is a national issue.
“I’d say we’re challenged nationally in terms of addressing a mental health care crisis,” he told the Charleston City Paper.” Part of that is our duty to provide as much general help as possible — providing clinical service, but also expanding the workforce and addressing mental health shortages.
“I think that’s true nationally, but also within South Carolina,” he said. “In some ways we see this as a challenge for South Carolina, but it’s also an opportunity for us to be bold.”
Gray is not the only one who thinks so. A 2023 report by Mental Health America says the need for mental health care access rises every year.
“Millions of people in the U.S. — one in five American adults — experience a mental health condition each year,” the report reads. “Despite an obvious need for mental health care, a majority of Americans (76%) are dissatisfied with the state of mental health treatment in the U.S.”
Expanding access of mental health resources into primary care physicians is a potential crucial step to fixing this mental health crisis, Gray said.
“Empowering primary care physicians to be able to do effective screening and brief interventions, both around mental health and substance abuse, is really important,” he said. “Access to care is a really good touch point, because many people are engaged in health care, but not so much with mental health care.”
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