Short answers, pulled from the story.
The World Health Organization defines mental health as a "state of well-being in which the individual realizes their abilities, can cope with the normal stresses of life, can work productively and fruitfully, and can contribute to their community." It encompasses emotional, psychological, and social well-being, and is not merely the absence of mental illness.
In 2019, about 970 million people worldwide had a mental disorder, with anxiety and depression the most common. WHO evidence suggests nearly half the world's population is affected by mental illness in some way.
Dorothea Dix, who lived from 1802 to 1887, was a school teacher who worked to help people with mental disorders and expose the conditions they endured. From 1840 to 1880 she won federal support to set up over 30 state psychiatric hospitals, and in 1843 she submitted a Memorial to the Legislature of Massachusetts describing the abuse of mentally ill patients.
The Community Mental Health Centers Act of 1963 enforced the closure of state-provisioned psychiatric hospitals as part of deinstitutionalization. It allowed only patients who posed an imminent danger to others or themselves to be admitted into state facilities.
In 2019, about one in seven of the world's 10 to 19 year olds experienced a mental health disorder, roughly 165 million young people. More than half of all mental health conditions begin before age 20, the average age of onset for depressive disorders is between 11 and 14 years, and suicide is the fourth leading cause of death among 15 to 19 year olds.
Treatments include pharmacotherapy using antidepressants, benzodiazepines, and lithium, along with psychotherapy schools such as cognitive behavioral therapy and dialectical behavioral therapy. Physical exercise, mindfulness meditation, and expressive therapies like art, music, and drama therapy are also used, with music therapy proven effective and drama therapy approved by NICE for treating psychosis.
A 2016 report concluded there is no country, society, or culture where people with mental illness have the same societal value as people without it. Stigma takes the forms of public stigma, structural stigma, and self-stigma, and public stigma produces discrimination through withholding help, avoidance, coercive treatment, and segregated institutions.