Top Features for Hartford, Connecticut
Hartford is a city in Connecticut. It is the capital of this state, and the location for the Mark Twain House & Museum, which features thousands of artifacts, including the desk where Twain wrote his most popular works. In addition, you can find the Harriet Beecher Stowe Center, which contains the author’s Victorian house and furnishings from the period, as well as a garden. Another famous attraction is the Wadsworth Atheneum Museum of Art, featuring Renaissance and impressionist works.
Facts
- Hartford is one of the oldest cities in the United States.
- The previously mentioned Wadsworth Atheneum is the oldest public art museum in the country.
- Inside Horace Bushnell Memorial Hall, there is a 187-by-40-foot Art Deco oil painting, the largest of its kind in the nation.
- The first magazine created for kids, “The Children’s Magazine,” was published in Hartford in 1789.
- The Hartford Courant is the oldest continuously published newspaper in the U.S.
- Three decades before the Salem witch trials, eleven women and men were executed, starting with Alice Young. Her hanging in 1647 was the first witchcraft execution to happen in the country.
History/Data
Hartford was settled in 1635 by Thomas Hooker, John Haynes, and 100 followers from the Massachusetts Bay Colony. Over the years, Hartford has grown into one of the most prosperous cities in the country and was the wealthiest city in the country in the late 19th century.
In 2019, it was reported that the population of Hartford is 123,088 residents.
LGBTQ+ Facts
In 2008, Connecticut was the second state to legalize same-sex marriage. It is an open and inclusive city that continues to support its queer community and any visitors. Recently, Expedia.com declared Hartford, Connecticut, as one of their most “exciting LGBTQ-friendly cities worldwide.
4.6 percent of the Hartford, West Hartford, and East Hartford areas identify as LGBTQ+, putting it nearly on par with some of the biggest metro areas in the nation. Hartford offers various services to LGBTQ+ youth and has an LGBTQ+ liaison in the city mayor’s office.
Mental Health in Hartford, Connecticut
Similar to the rest of the U.S., Connecticut has had an increase in needing adolescent mental healthcare over the past ten years. However, according to recent statistics from Mental Health America on Connecticut behavioral health, the state ranks second for youth accessing mental health care.
In essence, more than half (56.1 percent) of youth and children with major depression received mental health care and services. However, that does signify that 43.9 percent of young people did not receive care for depression. In addition, only 35.4 percent of young people in Connecticut with severe depression received consistent treatment.
Here are some more statistics on Connecticut behavioral health for children and teens:
There were 6.7 deaths by suicide per 100,000 in 2019 for adolescents ages 15 to 19.
Thirteen percent of Connecticut youth experienced had at minimum one major depressive episode over the past year, ranking at number 23 in the state for the prevalence of mental illness in young people.
For young adults ages, 18 to 25 in Connecticut, those with serious thoughts of suicide increased from 5.6 percent between 2008 and 2012 up to 8.2 percent between 2013 and 2017. In addition, the rates of severe mental illness among young adults increased 3 to 6 percent.
Finally, from 2015 to 2017, a yearly average of 19.6 percent (or 76,000) of young people in Connecticut had a substance use disorder, and 12 percent were diagnosed with an alcohol use disorder.
If you know a child or young person in need of mental health care in Hartford, be sure to check out our extensive directory of psychologists for kids.