62% of People With Mental Illness in Texas Go Untreated

A call to every therapist who got into this work to actually help people.

You didn't spend years in grad school, rack up student debt, and sit through thousands of supervised hours because you wanted a full caseload of people who already knew how to find you.

You got into this because people are struggling. And the data is screaming that most of them never make it to your couch.

A new analysis by Forbes Advisor Health Insurance ranked the best and worst states for mental health care in the U.S., and if the numbers don't make you angry, read them again.¹

Texas, ranked worst in the country for the second year running:

• 62% of adults with mental illness go completely untreated
• Nearly 75% of youth with depression never receive services
• Almost one-third of people with a mental illness can't afford a single doctor's visit

Georgia. Alabama. Florida. Mississippi. Six of the ten worst states are in the South. Millions of people, your potential clients, living in mental health deserts, not because they don't want help, but because the path to finding it is broken.

And here's the part that should hit home: this isn't just a policy failure. It's a matching failure.

Therapists exist in these states. Good ones. But the system for connecting people to them is a mess of outdated directories, opaque insurance requirements, cold intake forms, and long waits. The people who need help the most are the ones least equipped to navigate all of that.

The Gap Isn't Supply. It's Access.

Vermont ranks first in the country for mental health care. It's not because Vermonters are mentally healthier. It's because they have 34 treatment centers per 10,000 businesses, lower uninsured rates, and a culture that doesn't shame people for asking for help.

The South has stigma working against it. Underfunded infrastructure. And a therapy discovery process that requires people to already know what they're looking for, at the exact moment they're least equipped to search.

People in crisis don't browse directories like they're shopping for a sofa. They need a fast, low-friction path to a real human who can help.

You Could Be That Path

StartHere.care is a free therapist matching platform. Not free-with-a-catch. Actually free. For therapists, forever.

We built a 3-minute intake for clients. Three minutes, and they're matched with therapists based on fit, not just whoever has an opening, not just whoever ranks highest in a Google search.

We're not here to be another directory. We're here to close the gap between the 62% who go untreated and the therapists who got into this work to help them.

If the data above made you feel something, that's the feeling that should drive what you do next.

Join StartHere.care. It's free, and it takes about five minutes.

Sources

1. Forbes Advisor Health Insurance analysis and Healthline, "Best and Worst States for Mental Health Care," October 2024.