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Like many low-income American communities, the mental health of those who live in Fall River is not as good as it could be. Nearly 18 % of Fall River adult residents report that they experienced fifteen or more days of poor mental health during the previous thirty days, compared with only nine percent of all Massachusetts residents. Likewise, Nearly 13% of Fall River adults reported having fifteen or more days in which they felt sad or blue in the previous 30 days, compared with 7% statewide.

The Youth Risk Behavior Survey conducted in the Fall River schools revealed that 30.7% of Durfee High School Sophomore students reported feeling sad or hopeless every day for two weeks or more during the 2005/06 school year. This figure was slightly higher than the 27% of students throughout the state who made had a similar response that year. The percentages of students who had considered suicide in the past 12 months (13.6%) or who had hurt or injured themselves on purpose (18.1%) were essentially the same as the statewide figures. Those who had made a suicide plan (11.2%) in the past 12 months was slightly lower than statewide figures (12%). However, the percent of Fall River students who reported having attempted suicide in the past 12 months (11.4%) was significantly higher than either statewide (6.0%) or national (8.0%) figures.  

While the exact rate of persons with mental illness in Fall River is difficult to estimate, if Fall River is compared with other studies of mental illness rates, one would expect about 20% of the adult population to have a diagnosis of mental illness. Of this, about 7% would have a condition for a year or more, and about 5.4% would have a "serious mental illness", such as bipolar disorder or schizophrenia. This would translate into more than 18,000 adults with mental illness, over 6,000 with an illness that lasts a year or longer, and over 5,000 with a serious mental illness. Given that these rates are likely to be higher in a lower income community, the actual figures for Fall River are likely to be even higher.

Five instant topic reports contain data from the Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System (BRFSS) organized by indicators such as smoking rates, binge drinking, overweight and obesity and activity.

A very complete report combining health status indicators from a variety of sources into one document that covers Fall River and Southeastern Mass.

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