Mental health problems cost £8.6bn
Mental health problems cost Scotland £8.6bn last year – and the lion's share was borne by the patients, according to a report published yesterday by a leading mental health charity.
According to the Scottish Association for Mental Health (SAMH) the cost exceeds the total amount spent in Scotland by the NHS on all health conditions combined, and is equivalent to 9% of the Gross Domestic Product.
But public spending on health and social care came to £1.1bn, just 12.3% of the total costs of mental health problems, whereas 55% of the overall cost was attributable to the human costs. This means that most of these costs were being borne by people who have mental health problems.
The findings are contained in a report – What's it Worth? – launched by SAMH at the Scottish Parliament. SAMH commissioned the Sainsbury Centre for Mental Health to undertake an analysis of the social and economic costs of mental health problems in Scotland, following the publication of studies in England and Northern Ireland.
The study examined not only the costs of providing health and social care services and losses to the economy, but also the personal costs of mental health problems. The report found these human costs came to £4.7bn – more than four times the cost of all NHS and local authority mental health services in Scotland. Other costs included loss of output – for example being unable to work – amounting to £2.4bn, or 27.7%.
SAMH said that What's it Worth? reinforced the need for mental health promotion and prevention work to continue with added vigour, and for the barriers to mental health and well-being to be systematically dismantled.
In response to these findings, the charity has produced an Agenda for Action for the 2007 Scottish elections, stating what political commitments are needed on mental health in Scotland.
It focuses on four key areas; rights, resilience, recovery and resources, and was developed through consultation with the association's members, many of whom have experience of mental health.
Shona Neil, SAMH chief executive, said: "This report highlights the huge cost of failing to promote mental health and well-being for everyone.
"The best way to reduce the costs is to build the resilience of all citizens, ensure that any one of us can expect recovery if we develop a mental health problem, respect the rights of people with problems, and commit sufficient resources to achieving all of this.
"In other words, to act on the demands that SAMH is making in our Agenda for Action."
Angela Greatley, chief executive of the Sainsbury Centre, said: "The costs of mental ill health are massive. Most of them fall upon people with mental health problems and their families, many of whom live in poverty because of the prejudice and discrimination that surround mental illness.
"By quantifying the cost, we can show what can be achieved if we take the issue seriously and invest in improving the lives of the people affected by it."
The report attempted to identify and quantify all the main costs of mental health problems in Scotland and then to combine these to give a total cost expressed as a monetary value.
The cost of worklessness because of mental health problems was estimated at £915m – making it clear the cost of the unemployment and economic inactivity among people with mental health problems was considerable.
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