Jennifer Mendoza
Research expert covering health, pharma and medtech
Mental health in Mexico - Statistics & Facts
The impact of mental health on a person’s life goes beyond handling emotions and dealing with social interactions. In fact, mental health is closely interlinked with physical well-being and can affect a person’s physical health and their capacity to preserve it. From a public health perspective, this means that an investment in mental health can additionally translate into an improvement in physical well-being. When it comes to investing in mental health, no region assigns more budget to this area than Europe. In 2020, Europeans allocated more than 46 U.S. dollars per person to mental health programs. This is nearly 40 U.S. dollars more than what was spent in the Americas. In the case of Mexico, despite a growing population, the expenditure budget designated to mental health programs has been reduced in recent years, decreasing from 3.35 billion Mexican pesos in 2013 to 3.03 billion Mexican pesos in 2021.
Despite an increasing trend in the number of mental health professionals, only around seven in every ten of them work in the area of health and social services. In fact, just half of all Mexican psychologists work in medical offices, while six percent work in psychiatric and addiction treatment hospitals. When compared to other medical branches, approximately seven percent of medical offices in Mexico are specialized in psychology and mental health. Another two percent specialize in psychiatry. In contrast, general practice or family medicine accounts for one in two medical offices in the Latin American country.
How many practicing psychologists are there in Mexico?
In contrast to the declining expenditure on mental health programs, the number of practicing psychologists in the country has nearly doubled in the last decade. While around 74 thousand psychologists were registered in the country in 2013, this figure reached more than 115 thousand in 2018, and surpassed 131 thousand professionals by 2021. Most of these specialists are located in the most populous regions of Mexico, namely the State of Mexico and Mexico City, which currently host close to a third of all practicing psychologists working in the North American country. Colima, the least populous state in Mexico, has a total of 685 practicing psychologists registered.Despite an increasing trend in the number of mental health professionals, only around seven in every ten of them work in the area of health and social services. In fact, just half of all Mexican psychologists work in medical offices, while six percent work in psychiatric and addiction treatment hospitals. When compared to other medical branches, approximately seven percent of medical offices in Mexico are specialized in psychology and mental health. Another two percent specialize in psychiatry. In contrast, general practice or family medicine accounts for one in two medical offices in the Latin American country.
A preference for talking to friends and relatives over consulting with professionals
In addition to a high enough budget and sufficient available resources, awareness within the population is key to proper management of public mental health. According to a survey carried out in Mexico in 2021, the main measures taken by respondents to deal with symptoms of mental health conditions were relaxation and distraction. Self-care improvement and talking to friends and relatives were also among the most common activities to deal with these kinds of symptoms. In contrast, consulting a physician was not amid the top three choices. In fact, close to six in every ten people suffering from symptoms of a mental health condition had not consulted a doctor by the time of the survey, and another three in every ten had consulted a mental health professional only once. There are multiple reasons for this. However, the two main motives given by respondents were that people considered their symptoms as not serious and that they believed these symptoms were normal.
