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San Bernardino is the 17th largest city in California. It is a bit of a college town, home to California State University. It is situated east of Los Angeles and is about 60 square miles large. The city fell on hard financial times a few years ago and had to file bankruptcy.
San Bernardino is an artistic community with museums and the largest amphitheater in the United States. It is renowned for its underground water sources. It is more of a seasonal climate than many cities in California with hot summers and very cold winters.
There are about 2 million people in San Bernardino. The per capita income is only about $30,000 although the average salary is closer to $50,000. It seems the residents of the city are suffering as much financially as the city itself.
You can imagine that, with these financial challenges, there is a high number of people with mental health issues in San Bernardino.
San Bernardino has one of the highest rates of mental illness in the country. Over 12% of all residents suffer from a serious mental illness. The problem is that the county simply doesn’t have the resources to provide help to these people.
The population in California has gone up by 7 million people in the last decade but the funding and resources has not increased. The state has a difficult time keeping up with treatment. Given the high percentage of people suffering from a mental illness, it is unfortunate there are not more resources to help.
San Bernardino (and California in general) are aware that they don’t have the money or resources to help all people with mental health disorders. In fact, since the bankruptcy in 2012, the city simply doesn’t have the money to run its most basic operations. A lot of services have been outsourced to the county and state. However, they don’t have the resources either.
The poverty rate in San Bernardino is surprisingly high at 17.7%. This is one of the key factors that leads to mental health disorders. Because of the lack of mental health resources, San Bernardino has its share of problems including:
Even if San Bernardino was financially solvent, they would not be able to revamp their mental health services fast enough to meet the growing needs of the community.
San Bernardino is a college town, mixed with an art culture. It does have specific issues that the residents have to deal with which can lead to mental health disorders, including:
The divorce rate in San Bernardino has gone up a bit over the last ten years. It is now at 10.1% which is average for the state of California. It is higher than many other states in the country. One reason for the high divorce rate is financial issues.
Given that the town is mostly a college town, there aren’t a lot of new marriages to help boost the divorce rate. People don’t come to San Bernardino to get married – they come there after they divorce or while they’re in school.
The harsh economic conditions of the city cause more couple to refrain from getting married. There are expected to be more couples who wish to get divorced but simply can’t afford to do so. The divorce rate may continue to increase over the next decade.
After the city filed bankruptcy in 2012, they had to outsource a good part of their medical services. There are only 181 mental health professionals for every 100,000 people in the city. Many children and adults suffering from mental health issues simply do not have the money or information to seek treatment.
The college students have access to mental health help at school but a lot of them fail to get help. They see their problems as temporary. The residents of the town simply can’t afford health insurance or mental health private care.
E-Counseling makes it their mission to provide mental health information and resources to all people, regardless of their financial position. One reason a lot of people don’t get help is because they don’t know where to turn. E-Counseling offers a one-stop shop to find mental health resources.