Updated Mar 14, 2026
Prevention and Early Intervention in Mental Illness
The Need: Mental illness affects 1 in 5 adults in America and is the leading cause of disability worldwide. Researchers broadly agree that early intervention in serious mental illness, with intensive, coordinated services, is a defining factor in how far the disease progresses and the prognosis for a productive and successful life.
- Every year, 100,000 young adults in the U.S. experience their first psychotic episode, frequently involving debilitating hallucinations and delusions.
- Behaviors and symptoms that signal the development of a serious thought or mood disorder manifest on average 22 months before a disorder is present.
- Nonetheless, the average delay in receiving appropriate diagnosis and treatment is 21 months after the illness takes root and the patient suffers his or her first psychotic break.
- The longer the illness goes untreated, the more likely that young person will spiral down a damaging course, unable to graduate, unable to form relationships, unable to hold a job.
The Potential: Early intervention in mental illness comes with a measurable cost-benefit. But most counties in California lack the training or capacity to offer such services.
- The National Academy of Medicine determined that investing in prevention and early intervention could save as much as $1 trillion per year in healthcare and productivity costs.
- A multi-year review by the National Institute of Mental Health found patients with first episode psychosis who received early intervention, with coordinated specialty care, experienced greater improvement in their symptoms, relationships and quality of life; and were more involved in work or school compared with patients who did not receive these services.
The Economic Toll: The failure to ensure every young person in every county in California has access to early intervention puts a heavy burden on taxpayers, employers, hospital systems and public services.
- Untreated mental illness costs the United States economy $282 billion annually.
- Mental disorders are the single most expensive category of health costs for many employers, across all industries and sizes.
- Approximately one in eight visits to hospital emergency rooms involve mental health or substance abuse disorders, and such patients are much more likely to require hospitalization compared with other types of patients.
The Human Toll: In most cases, we can effectively bring serious thought and mood disorders, including schizophrenia, bipolar disorder and major depression, into remission if we intervene early with appropriate, evidence-based treatment. But we consistently fail to do so, and the human toll is evident.
- A 2023 study found that 66% of people living unhoused in California experience mental health conditions.
- 53% of the inmates in California jails have mental health needs.
- Each year in the U.S., more than 40,000 people die by suicide, largely because of untreated mental illness.
- A recent one-year study found the death rate for young people diagnosed with psychosis was 24 times higher than their peers in the general population.
— Compiled by the Steinberg Institute