A SILENT PANDEMIC OF 21ST CENTURY
- Arianna Russo
- Aug 7
- 3 min read
In recent times, mental health is not only posing as an individual problem, but as a real collective emergency capable of slowing economies and destabilizing societies.
Mental illness costs England £300 billion a year, the equivalent of nearly double its NHS budget, according to The Guardian research.
Centre for Mental Health thinktank researchers analyzed the economic, health and treatment impact of mental illness, as well as the human costs of reduced quality of life and well-being.
The report, commissioned by the federal mental health network NHS, calculated that by 2022, mental illness will cost £130 billion in human costs, £110 billion in economic costs and £60 billion in health and care costs.
The £300 billion cost in 2022 is equivalent to almost double the entire £153 billion NHS budget in England in the same year and is an “impact comparable, economically, to having a pandemic every year,” the report concludes.
The largest financial impact, £175 billion, falls on people living with mental health difficulties and their families, while the public sector supports £25 billion and businesses £101 billion.
According to the McKinsey Health Institute, mental disorders are one of the leading causes of disability worldwide, generating more than 290 million years of life lost to disability each year.
This translates into the fact that about one in four people will have a mental disorder in their lifetime, with an increase especially among young people and in populations affected by poverty and conflict.
But, what makes this crisis particularly critical is a real disproportion between impact and health responses:
-Only 2% of the global health budget is allocated to mental health.
-In many countries, average spending on mental health is less than $2 per capita per year.
-Approximately 50% of eating disorders occur by age 14, but less than half of cases are diagnosed or treated in time.
The staggering scale of the noncommunicable disease (NCD) and mental health epidemic results in severe economic losses and socioeconomic challenges.
Premature deaths and disability deplete human capital and reduce productivity, while simultaneously increasing prevention and treatment costs for individuals, communities, and countries.
Investing in cost-effective multisectoral health interventions can improve health for all and curb negative socioeconomic impacts. Economic analysis indicates that investing in cost-effective NCD interventions in low-income countries can generate $230 million in economic benefits and save nearly 7 million lives by 2030.
For every dollar invested in safe and affordable NCD policies and programs, there is a return of $7 per person. Investing in mental health prevention and treatment is equally promising: every dollar invested in treating depression and anxiety produces a $4 return in improved health and productivity.
However, funding for noncommunicable diseases and mental health services remains only a small fraction of health budgets, particularly in many low- and middle-income countries.
For the implementation of essential NCD and mental health care packages, domestic public spending will have to increase substantially. This will expand treatment and prevention services, avoid out-of-pocket payments for individuals, and strengthen equal access to care for all.
Development assistance for health remains a powerful financial tool to kick-start noncommunicable disease and mental health programs in low-resource settings where significant capital investments are needed. Development assistance resources are also well positioned to support public goods such as new medical products, policy instruments, and innovations in care that facilitate more coordinated and effective action across regions and countries.
CONCLUSION:
According to the OECD, mental health should be treated as a structural priority, involving not only health care, but also labor, schools, families and the public economy.
In the report “A New Benchmark for Mental Health Systems” (2021), the OECD outlines the pillars of an effective system that can prevent, detect and treat mental disorders in a coordinated and sustainable way.
Some key points:
-Integration of mental health into primary care services, to reduce the burden on specialists and intercept disorders earlier.
-Continuous evaluation of public policies with clear indicators of effectiveness, to avoid waste and poor accountability.
-Training of health and school professionals to identify early signs of distress.
-Targeted funding: the OECD points out that spending on mental health in many countries is no more than 1.5 percent of the health total-a figure that, according to the organization, needs to be more than doubled.
Mental health is a global, cross-cutting and systemic challenge. Data from McKinsey, WHO and OECD show how it is already a public health crisis, requiring investment, reform and coordinated policy action.
If ignored, it will cost lives, wealth and trillions in lost productivity. If addressed with vision, it can become one of the greatest public policy investment returns of the 21st century.
Assessed and Endorsed by the MedReport Medical Review Board
