"What is commonly referred to in the U. S. as the "mental health care system" is not really a system at all. While excellent programs exist in every state, in every community across America the "system" is actually a set of fragmented services provided inequitably by a haphazard array of specialty providers, often with inadequate resources and only tenuously connected to health care systems for other health needs. Crisis is too often the first point of contact for people experiencing a mental illness, while year-over-year increases in rates of anxiety, depression, traumatic stress, and death from suicide and overdose have led many to characterize the current situation as a 'pandemic' or 'epidemic' of mental illness, constituting a 'national emergency.' For youth and young adults, in late 2021 this emergency was formally recognized by the U. S. Surgeon General in the first Advisory ever issued regarding the nation's mental health"--
