McLEAN, Va. – The nation 's medical system falls because of mental health services because it' s already costing Americans trillions to fight.

Research from federal regulators and medical groups shows the number of young people in the world. Only 40% of young people with major depression got treatment, according to the National Institute for Mental Health.

Severe depression is a common precursor to suicide,which has a year in the USA.Suicides and suicide attempts cost the nation about $ 70 billion a year in living expenses for medical care and lost work hours.

TJ Esser, left, shown with sister Miranda, wants to see more and more. (Photo: Courtesy of TJ Esser)

The staggering price tag does not end there. Serious mental illness costs nearly $ 195 billion in lost earnings every year, and prescription opioid misuse – not including heroin, other drugs and alcohol – costs nearly $ 80 billion a year.

"The lack of access to long-term care is a problem," says Dr. Wun Jung Kim, a child psychiatrist and professor at Robert Wood. Johnson Medical School at Rutgers University. "We have a lousy system of care."

Experts say the key to success in the epidemic, and to the US TODAY research.

more: New documentary puts a youthful face on suicide and mental health; aim is to fight stigma

Nearly half of people who suffer from substance abuse disorder, federal data show. The American Academy of Childhood and Adolescent Psychiatry says children often emerge.

"Dr. Christine Moutier, a psychiatrist and chief medical officer of the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention.

Christine Moutier, chief medical officer of the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention, speaks with the Editorial Board of USA TODAY on April 29, 2019, in McLean, Va. (Photo: Hannah Gaber, USA TODAY)

Children and teens regularly appear in hospital psychiatric units. There, doctors may decide whether it is safe to release young patients to some form of outpatient treatment, or some other practical rehabilitation have failed.

Parents in Fairfax County, Virginia, says Rick Leichtweis, senior director of the Inova Health System's Kellar Center, which treats children and teens for mental health, addiction and special education .

Washington, D.C., is the only place in the US that the psychiatric academy says has the right ratio of child psychiatrists for the population.

Kim says, because the field is one of the lowest-paying medical specialties, and psychiatric wings of hospitals can hardly compete with, say, a new orthopedic unit.

Rising rates of youth suicide and psychiatric illnesses as a result of the health care system has begun to focus on the effects of mental and physical health. Young people, seemingly the most connected of all through social media, are being hit hard, John Twenge, San Diego State University psychology professor reported in a study in March.

Teens dont face time with friends, but they are mostly social, but they are the same. The share of high school seniors who said they often felt lonely increased from 26% in 2012 to 39% in 2017.

An NBC News / Survey Monkey polls today. Nearly a third of about 1,300 parents of 5- to 17-year-olds blamed social media for mental and emotional health problems in children. Bullying and stress were the next most frequently cited problems in the poll, part of the network's kids under pressure series this week.

Jamison Monroe, founder and CEO of Newport Academy, says he is self-medicated in high school. It's a story he told us last month he was trying to convince angry neighbors of the need for the four groups. McLean neighborhoods.

Such group homes "might actually be a wonderful thing from a suicide prevention standpoint if they offer something that is not the clinical environment but teaches them skills (and) that allows them to get back into their normal lives," Moutier says.

Justine Larson is a senior psychiatrist and medical advisor at the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration. (Photo: SAMHSA)

Other solutions:

•Training pediatricians.Psychiatrist Justine Larson, a senior medical advisor for mental health at the federal level Substance Abuse Mental Health Services Administration top priority.

• Remote psychiatric consultations. Johns Hopkins University's Center for Mental Health Services in Pediatric Primary Care. It also helps to connect psychiatrists with pediatricians during appointments provides a list on its website.

• Nonprofit programs. Nonprofits are stepping in to government funding shortfalls. In the Washington, D.C., Area, Strength In Our Voices high school student trains, teachers and others in suicide prevention in schools. In Florida's Collier County, agencies collaborate to reach at-risk children before they are in crisis through the Naples Children & Education Foundation's Beautiful Minds initiative. At Cincinnati Children's Hospital, Surviving the Teens teaches coping and language skills to navigate into adulthood, especially how to ask for help when teens need it.

Whether they get that care often depends on their parents. Rutgers' Dr. Kim says psychiatry is made more difficult by the stigma of many parents and grandparents attached to the field.

Jamison Monroe, founder and CEO of the Newport Academy, is a recent meeting in McLean, Va. (Photo: By Jayne O'Donnell)

Milwaukee-area teen TJ Esser told his family when he was 13 and found them very supportive. He was one of four students who spoke publicly a new Milwaukee PBS / Milwaukee Sentinel Journal documentary about youth mental health.

Transgender students "people who are so much better because it's not always an open place in schools to be who you are," says Esser, who is now 16 ..

Genevieve Mulligan, who grew up in the McLean group, said she knows how to train high school classmates who died from an overdose or suicide.

"I really hope that these adults understand that they are listening to you, and that they are listening to you when you are in the world. in my backyard, "Mulligan says.

The Harvard University graduate of the University of Michigan this fall. She may specialize in child and adolescent psychiatry.

TODAY's "I Survived It" Facebook support group. If you or your children are struggling with issues.

Contributing; Frank Gluck and Janine Zeitlin of the Fort Myers News Press, Rory Linnane of the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel and Anne Saker of the Cincinnati Enquirer.

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