Determining the Relationship Between Suicide Rates and Mental Health Provider Ratio

by Christian Bates

Submitted : Spring 2020

This project is an analysis of the relationship between suicide rates and mental health provider ratio within the United States. Data from 2018 were collected for each state regarding its suicide rate, mental health provider ratio, and percent of population unable to receive treatment for mental health problems. An initial analysis was made using suicide rates and mental health provider ratio, with no correlation being found. A second analysis was conducted, using multiple linear regression with the percent of individuals within each state who were unable to access treatment for their mental health problems being the confounding variable. Controlling for the percent of individuals within each state who were unable to access treatment for their mental health problems provided a significant correlation between suicide rate and mental health provider ratio (R² = .961). This allowed for further analysis, using integration to determine the average suicide rate using the equation of the trendlines for the graphs of both the unadjusted and adjusted data. The average suicide rate for the unadjusted graph was 25.64 per 100,000. For the adjusted graph, this number was 11.38 per 100,000. Findings imply that access to mental health providers and treatment availability decreases the amount of suicides within the United States.

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