“Because of the persistence of high levels of long term unemployment there are millions of people who are suffering from mental health problems and many of them are going untreated by professionals,” Carl Van Horn, a professor of public policy and economics at Rutgers and head of the Heldrich Center, said this week.

“Losing a job is more than just a financial crisis for people,” Van Horn says. “It creates numerous other damage: stress, anxiety, substance abuse, fights, and conflicts in the family and feelings of embarrassment and depression.”

The plight of many of the long-term unemployed became even direr in late December after Congress allowed jobless benefits to expire for more than 1.6 million Americans. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) vowed that renewing an extension of federal unemployment insurance benefits would be the first order of business when the Senate returned in January, but Republicans have blocked Democratic efforts to extend the program for those who exhausted their 26 weeks of state benefits.

“There are now 1.6 million unemployed Americans cut off and 2.3 million children affected,” said Sarah Ayres, a policy analyst with the liberal Center for American Progress.