Findings on Mental Health Diseases and Conditions Discussed by Investigators at Montana State University [The Effects of Expanding Access To Mental Health Services On Ss(D)I Applications and Awards , Symbolscript]: Mental Health Diseases and Conditions

2023 APR 17 (NewsRx) -- By a News Reporter-Staff News Editor at Mental Health News Daily -- Researchers detail new data in Mental Health Diseases and Conditions. According to news reporting out of Bozeman, Montana, by NewsRx editors, research stated, “The growing number of individuals suffering from a serious mental illness underscores the important role of interventions such as treatment, policies, and programs to support those in need. Such support efforts often interact in unanticipated ways.”

Financial supporters for this research include U.S. Social Security Administration through the Retirement and Disability Consortium, U.S. Social Security Administration (SSA) as part of the Retirement and Disability Consortium.

Our news journalists obtained a quote from the research from Montana State University, “This paper considers the degree to which access to mental health treatment services affects participation in federal disability programs including the Supplemental Security Income and the Social Security Disability Insurance (SS(D)I) programs. Our main approach uses an identification strategy that leverages county-level variation in the number of mental health treatment establishments to estimate changes in access to mental health treatment on SS(D)I program participation -measured by applications and awards. We also explore a series of event studies and heterogeneity analyses. Our results show that an increase in mental health facilities increases participation in SS(D)I programs. A 10 percent increase in a county’s number of office -based mental health establishments increases the SSI application rate by 1.2 percent and the SSDI application rate by 0.7 percent. While the overall sample suggests that this does not translate to an increase in SS(D)I awards, we do find increases in awards in counties that have a higher proportion of residents below the poverty line.”

According to the news editors, the research concluded: “This suggests that increasing access to mental health resources can be a pathway through which people suffering from severe mental illness can be diagnosed and access social safety nets.”

This research has been peer-reviewed.

For more information on this research see: The Effects of Expanding Access To Mental Health Services On Ss(D)I Applications and Awards , Symbolscript. Labour Economics, 2023;81. Labour Economics can be contacted at: Elsevier, Radarweg 29, 1043 Nx Amsterdam, Netherlands.

Our news journalists report that additional information may be obtained by contacting Carly Urban, Montana State University, Bozeman, MT 59717, United States. Additional authors for this research include Matt Messel and Isaac Swensen.

The direct object identifier (DOI) for that additional information is: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.labeco.2023.102339. This DOI is a link to an online electronic document that is either free or for purchase, and can be your direct source for a journal article and its citation.

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