New Report Shows The U.S. Is Failing When It Comes To Mental Health

How healthy are people in the U.S.? A new federal report shows that although the country has made progress in some areas, such as increasing how much exercise people get and lowering the number of teens who smoke cigarettes, it’s fallen behind in others, particularly in taking care of mental health. The new report, published Jan. 11 by researchers at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), detailed the country’s progress in meeting a set of 10-year national health goals that were set in 2010 as part of an initiative called Healthy People 2020. The initiative called for improvements in 26 different measures of public health, covering a wide range of areas including access to health care services, mental health, quality of the environment, and rates of injuries and violence. So far, the U.S. has met or exceeded eight of the 26 objectives, and has made progress toward meeting another eight of the goals, the report said. However, in seven areas, the country has seen “little or no detectable change,” and in three, the U.S. is moving in the wrong direction, the report said. Goals met The new report shows that the U.S. has met the national objectives for improvements in maternal, infant and child health: The national rates of infant deaths and rates of preterm live births before 37 weeks of pregnancy have both dropped down to goal levels since 2007. The percentage of people in the U.S. who regularly meet the recommended weekly goals for physical...
Source: Science - The Huffington Post - Category: Science Source Type: news