{"id":5870,"date":"2026-02-25T22:19:30","date_gmt":"2026-02-25T22:19:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.tarleton.edu\/tieuc\/?page_id=5870"},"modified":"2026-03-06T17:23:35","modified_gmt":"2026-03-06T17:23:35","slug":"mental-health-in-nct","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/www.tarleton.edu\/tieuc\/dashboards\/mental-health-in-nct\/","title":{"rendered":"Mental Health in NCT"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"-6e2bad20-a6ea-4ea2-ae47-b52181a5bbb7\">Mental Health in NCT<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>This interactive dashboard explores&nbsp;<strong>mental health outcomes across 24 North Central Texas counties<\/strong>, allowing users to switch between measures (Frequent Mental Distress, Crude Suicide Rate, Suicides, and Drug Overdose Deaths) and instantly see how patterns shift by&nbsp;<strong>year and county<\/strong>. The map highlights&nbsp;<strong>regional disparities<\/strong>, while the trend chart reveals whether a county\u2019s mental health indicators are&nbsp;<strong>improving, worsening, or fluctuating<\/strong>&nbsp;over time. KPI callouts help benchmark each county against the&nbsp;<strong>best-performing county<\/strong>&nbsp;for the selected view. Year coverage varies by measure (Frequent Mental Distress\/Overdose: 2016\u20132025; Suicide metrics: 2020\u20132025), and some county-year values may be&nbsp;<strong>missing\/suppressed<\/strong>, particularly for smaller counties.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Demographics and what each measure represents<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>All measures are reported at the&nbsp;<strong>county level<\/strong>&nbsp;(not individual-level) and reflect&nbsp;<strong>population health outcomes<\/strong>:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><strong>Frequent Mental Distress (raw value)<\/strong><br>Typically a&nbsp;<strong>percentage of adults<\/strong>&nbsp;reporting poor mental health on many days in the past month (an indicator of ongoing mental strain).<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Crude Suicide Rate<\/strong><br>A&nbsp;<strong>rate<\/strong>&nbsp;(commonly per 100,000 population) that helps compare counties of different sizes.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Suicides (raw value)<\/strong><br>The&nbsp;<strong>count\/number of suicide deaths<\/strong>&nbsp;recorded for the county\/year.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Drug Overdose Deaths (raw value)<\/strong><br>The&nbsp;<strong>count\/number of overdose deaths<\/strong>&nbsp;recorded for the county\/year.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity\"\/>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>How to read the dashboard (what each section is telling you)<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><strong>MH Map (top):<\/strong>&nbsp;A regional heatmap showing&nbsp;<strong>which counties are higher or lower<\/strong>&nbsp;for the selected measure and year. Darker shading generally signals higher values.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>MH Trend (bottom):<\/strong>&nbsp;A time series for the selected county so you can see&nbsp;<strong>direction and volatility<\/strong>&nbsp;(spikes, drops, or steady patterns).<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>KPI tiles (right):<\/strong>\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><strong>KPI AVG<\/strong>&nbsp;= the selected county\u2019s value for the selected year (your \u201cheadline number\u201d).<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>KPI BEST<\/strong>&nbsp;= the&nbsp;<strong>lowest<\/strong>&nbsp;county (best-performing) for that measure\/year.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>(If you also have Worst elsewhere, that\u2019s your \u201chighest county\u201d benchmark.)<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity\"\/>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Key insights you can safely state (and they\u2019ll stay true even when filters change)<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><strong>Strong geographic differences:<\/strong>&nbsp;The map consistently highlights that mental health outcomes are&nbsp;<strong>not evenly distributed<\/strong>\u2014some counties cluster at higher levels while others remain lower.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Urban vs. rural pattern often shows up:<\/strong>&nbsp;Smaller\/rural counties can appear&nbsp;<strong>higher or more volatile<\/strong>&nbsp;for rate-based outcomes (like suicide rate), while larger counties often look&nbsp;<strong>more stable<\/strong>&nbsp;year-to-year.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Rates vs. counts matter:<\/strong>\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><strong>Rates (Crude Suicide Rate)<\/strong>&nbsp;are best for fair comparisons across counties.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Raw values (Suicides \/ Overdose Deaths)<\/strong>&nbsp;are more influenced by&nbsp;<strong>county population size<\/strong>&nbsp;(large counties can have higher counts even if their rate is moderate).<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Trend line = early warning signal:<\/strong>&nbsp;When a county shows&nbsp;<strong>multi-year upward movement<\/strong>&nbsp;(or repeated spikes), it can flag an emerging concern\u2014even if it\u2019s not the worst county in a single year.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity\"\/>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Years available (from your Excel file)<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Based on the columns in your uploaded dataset:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><strong>Frequent Mental Distress:<\/strong>&nbsp;<strong>2016\u20132025<\/strong><\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Drug Overdose Deaths (raw):<\/strong>&nbsp;<strong>2016\u20132025<\/strong>&nbsp;<em>(but with missing\/suppressed data in multiple smaller counties)<\/em><\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Suicides (raw):<\/strong>&nbsp;<strong>2020\u20132025<\/strong><\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Crude Suicide Rate:<\/strong>&nbsp;<strong>2020\u20132025<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Missing data note (important and dashboard-friendly)<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Some county-year values\u2014especially for&nbsp;<strong>Drug Overdose Deaths<\/strong>&nbsp;and occasionally&nbsp;<strong>Suicide rate \/ Suicides<\/strong>\u2014may be&nbsp;<strong>blank<\/strong>&nbsp;for certain smaller counties\/years. This commonly happens when counts are&nbsp;<strong>very small or suppressed for reliability\/privacy<\/strong>, so blanks should be interpreted as&nbsp;<strong>\u201cnot reported\/available\u201d<\/strong>, not \u201czero.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity\"\/>\n\n\n\n<div class='tableauPlaceholder' id='viz1772058463308' style='position: relative'><noscript><a href='#'><img alt='Dashboard 1 ' src='https:&#47;&#47;public.tableau.com&#47;static&#47;images&#47;Me&#47;MentalHealth_17716130611170&#47;Dashboard1&#47;1_rss.png' style='border: none' \/><\/a><\/noscript><object class='tableauViz'  style='display:none;'><param name='host_url' value='https%3A%2F%2Fpublic.tableau.com%2F' \/> <param name='embed_code_version' value='3' \/> <param name='site_root' value='' \/><param name='name' value='MentalHealth_17716130611170&#47;Dashboard1' \/><param name='tabs' value='no' \/><param name='toolbar' value='yes' \/><param name='static_image' value='https:&#47;&#47;public.tableau.com&#47;static&#47;images&#47;Me&#47;MentalHealth_17716130611170&#47;Dashboard1&#47;1.png' \/> <param name='animate_transition' value='yes' \/><param name='display_static_image' value='yes' \/><param name='display_spinner' value='yes' \/><param name='display_overlay' value='yes' \/><param name='display_count' value='yes' \/><param name='language' value='en-US' \/><\/object><\/div>                <script type='text\/javascript'>                    var divElement = document.getElementById('viz1772058463308');                    var vizElement = divElement.getElementsByTagName('object')[0];                    if ( divElement.offsetWidth > 800 ) { vizElement.style.width='1657px';vizElement.style.height='878px';} else if ( divElement.offsetWidth > 500 ) { vizElement.style.width='1657px';vizElement.style.height='878px';} else { vizElement.style.width='100%';vizElement.style.height='1377px';}                     var scriptElement = document.createElement('script');                    scriptElement.src = 'https:\/\/public.tableau.com\/javascripts\/api\/viz_v1.js';                    vizElement.parentNode.insertBefore(scriptElement, vizElement);                <\/script>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Mental Health in NCT This interactive dashboard explores&nbsp;mental health outcomes across 24 North Central Texas counties, allowing users to switch between measures (Frequent Mental Distress, Crude Suicide Rate, Suicides, and &#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":689,"featured_media":0,"parent":3625,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"template-fullwidth.php","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"inline_featured_image":false,"advgb_blocks_editor_width":"","advgb_blocks_columns_visual_guide":"","footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-5870","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"acf":[],"coauthors":[],"author_meta":{"author_link":"https:\/\/www.tarleton.edu\/tieuc\/author\/bkurdle\/","display_name":"Webmaster"},"relative_dates":{"created":"Posted 2 months ago","modified":"Updated 1 month ago"},"absolute_dates":{"created":"Posted on February 25, 2026","modified":"Updated on March 6, 2026"},"absolute_dates_time":{"created":"Posted on February 25, 2026 10:19 pm","modified":"Updated on March 6, 2026 5:23 pm"},"featured_img_caption":"","featured_img":false,"series_order":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tarleton.edu\/tieuc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/5870","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tarleton.edu\/tieuc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tarleton.edu\/tieuc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tarleton.edu\/tieuc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/689"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tarleton.edu\/tieuc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5870"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.tarleton.edu\/tieuc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/5870\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5877,"href":"https:\/\/www.tarleton.edu\/tieuc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/5870\/revisions\/5877"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tarleton.edu\/tieuc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/3625"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tarleton.edu\/tieuc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5870"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}