The Economic Cost of Untreated Mental Health Disorders in the United States - Why You Should be Concerned About the Decline in Mental Health
Untreated mental health in the United States costs the economy trillions of dollars.
Regardless of whether you suffer from mental illness or not, the decrease in mental health is impacting you. And it will continue to impact us on more drastic scales if we don’t do something about it now.
We must prioritize mental health care in order to reverse the negative economic impact; in doing so, this will add millions back into our economy.
In part one of this series as to why you should care about the declining mental health in the United States, we’re discussing the economic costs and how this impacts you as an individual.
What Does Mental Health Have to do with the Economy?
The state of our economy depends on the production and consumption of resources - essentially trading money for goods and services. When our economy is thriving, we as individuals experience a positive impact on our way of living, quality of life, income, employment, and the quality/quantity of resources available to us.
When our economy struggles, we see the negative impacts on both a societal and individual basis.
Untreated mental health disorders have a severe impact on our economy due to productivity loss, existing stigmas, and lack of awareness which impacts decisions that involve our economy - and its only looking to get worse from here if we don’t do something about it.
The good news is that we, as a society and each of us as individuals, can turn this damage around and it starts here, by educating yourself on the impact.
The Impact of Productivity Loss from Mental Illness
Individuals struggling with depression experience a 35% decrease in productivity within the workplace.
While this may not sound like an extreme amount, the impact this has on our economy shows just how extreme this data really is, especially when taking into consideration how prevalent mental health disorders are within those of a “working age.”
For individuals ages 15 to 44, mental health disorders are the most widespread illness. This means that the workplace, businesses, and economy as a whole is highly impacted by the loss of productivity.
THE ECONOMIC IMPACT OF MENTAL HEALTH FROM THE HUMAN CAPITAL APPROACH
When looking at the impact of the economy from the human capital approach, this takes into consideration the direct and indirect costs of mental illness within the United States. Direct costs include hospitalization and therapy, whereas indirect costs include productivity loss due to work absence.
In 2010, these factors were found to have a total cost of $2.5 trillion in the economy and expected to double by 2030 if left unresolved.
The indirect costs are much higher than the direct costs of untreated mental disorders; meaning that the loss of productivity and ability to function optimally in the workplace dramatically impacts our businesses and economy more than the cost of mental health care.
In fact, out of the $2.5 trillion lost in the economy in 2010, $1.7 trillion of that cost came from the indirect cost and productivity loss from those struggling with mental health.
THE ECONOMIC IMPACT OF MENTAL HEALTH FROM THE ECONOMIC GROWTH APPROACH
When considering how the economy is impacted from an economic growth approach, this looks at how the economy has been impacted via company growth in employees and the financial return.
Economic growth is known to be negatively impacted by disease, mental illness included as one of the highest among the list of diseases. In fact, poor mental health takes the lead in economic output loss over cancer, respiratory disease, and diabetes with the loss amounting to an estimated $16.3 trillion worldwide.
Each year, $210.5 billion is lost in the United States economy due to unresolved depression from just the decrease in productivity in the workplace alone.
Ultimately, poor mental health left untreated within society now has more of an impact on economic costs than other chronic diseases.
The Cost of The Stigma & Denial of Mental Illness on Our Economy
Another way that the economy is impacted is through the stigma (and denial) of mental illness. The lack of awareness on mental health issues within the United States prevents people from getting access to the help they need.
A way that we can measure this impact on the economy is through the value of statistical life approach (VSL). This approach looks at how much people are willing to spend in order to decrease the risk of mental health disorders or mental illness.
For example, the more people who are willing to spend towards mental health care within the United States via taxes, the higher the chances of improved mental health within the United States.
The economic loss has been estimated to be about $8.5 trillion back in 2010, and again, expected to double by 2030.
All of the above predictions on how the economy would continue to be impacted via mental health were made before the 2020 pandemic, which has lead to a dramatic increase in mental health struggles.
The Decline of Mental Health is Worse Than Expected
Within the first year of the pandemic, reports of anxiety and depression increased by 25% globally. After the peak of the pandemic, it was anticipated by researchers that high levels of depression and anxiety would begin to drop back down. Contrary to this expectation, levels of depression remain high and reports of mental health disorders and mental health struggles continue to grow within our community.
This is the opposite direction that we wanted or expected to move in. If we continue to see mental health care neglected in the United States, we can expect more dramatic & negative impacts on our economy. From an individual standpoint, this impacts our way of life, quality of life, income, employment, and quality/quantity of resources available to us.
With that said, change around mental health is not only needed; it is demanded.
What Can We Do to Create Change?
Despite the current impacts of mental health on our economy, with proper mental health care, we can reverse this. Emphasizing mental health within our society (through policy changes, in the workplace, and in the healthcare system) is expected to add 4% growth within our economy, which results to millions of dollars being added back into the economy, rather than the loss that we’re currently seeing.
What this looks like for you is more business for your company, higher salaries, more employment opportunities, and higher quality & quantity of goods and services from companies you support.
Using therapy as part of the mental health care plan for those struggling has been seen to boost employment and capital and exceed the costs of implementing mental health care for our economy. When it comes to the treatment of depression, roughly 80% of employees struggling report increased productivity and feeling more satisfied within their workplace.
Some ways that mental health care can be provided in the workplace is through providing insurance policies which include therapy, mental health days, and work-life balance.
While change does not happen overnight, there is a lot that you and I can do as an individuals to help encourage this change within our society.
Spreading Awareness & Removing the Stigma
I had a conversation with my partner recently about awareness on a separate matter. He asked, “What does sharing a social media post about my opinions actually do for anyone?” This is a valid question. Spreading awareness may seem ineffective due to its simplicity, but here’s why awareness is important:
When we speak up, word gets out to everyone: our community members, peers, politicians, stakeholders, managers, CEO’s. This can (and does) lead to changes in policies around mental health in our society. Some of what this can lead to is increasing research around mental health treatment and mental health care coverage in health insurance policies.
In addition to policy changes, removing the stigma encourages more people to seek help.
It is up to us to create, share, and encourage this conversation around mental health, because this gives those of us who struggle the strongest fighting chance to live a quality life while benefiting our entire society.
This is how change happens. Speak up; your voice matters.
Informing Politicians on the Importance of Mental Health Care
Spreading awareness is one way for politicians to start taking notice in the changes we demand around mental health and mental illness, but another way we can work towards creating more of an impact is by reaching out to elected officials directly!
You can find your elected officials here: https://www.usa.gov/elected-officials
You can use this resource to help structure what you want to say: https://www.nvfc.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/10/ElectedGuide.pdf
Advocate for Mental Health in the Workplace
It’s important to understand the change that needs to happen within the workplace to improve productivity as well. This can be achieved through advocating for mental health within your company.
Schedule a meeting with your boss, manager, or HR team to discuss the ways that improved mental health in the workplace increases productivity and income for the company. It’s important that you enter this conversation prepared with statistics and data. You can use resources from this blog post as a backing to your advocation and/or gather your own information as well.
Final Notes
Our voice is one of the most powerful tools we have to inspire change & create conversation around mental health, or anything we care about, for that matter. The louder and more persistent we are as community, the stronger chances there are for positive change.
