UK PM vows to transform mental health support

On Monday UK Prime Minister Theresa May announced her plans to “transform” attitudes to mental health, with a focus on children and young people.

Measures include additional training for teachers, an extra £15million for community care, and improved support in the workplace.

According to the UK government one in four people has a mental disorder at some point in their life, with an annual cost of £105bn. Young people are affected disproportionately with over half of mental health problems starting by the age of 14 and 75% by 18. 

Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt said that care for children and young people needed urgent attention as the pressures of social media, cyber bullying and an increase in self-harming was a “massive worry for parents.”

Employers and organizations will be given additional training in supporting staff who need to take time off. Simon Walker, director general at the Institute of Directors, said employers had “a real role to play” in ensuring the mental health of their workforce.”

A new article by Professor Lord Richard Layard examines the economics of mental health. He writes, “Providing evidence-based therapies for people with a mental illness should be at the heart of public policymaking, given the burden of mental illness and the payoff to extending treatment.” He says, “…therapy boosts both employment and output, with gains exceeding the cost of treatment. It also produces savings in physical health care—as much as 20% of an individual’s annual costs—and improves life-satisfaction.” He estimates that if mentally ill people received treatments so that they had the same employment rate as the rest of the population, total employment would be 4% higher, adding many billions to national output.

Related articles:
The economics of mental health, by Richard Layard

See also our papers on happiness in the labor market.