Mental health problems cost the economy more than €3 billion in 2006, a new report has found.
The main costs were found to be in the labour market as a result of lost employment, absenteeism, lost productivity and premature retirement. There were also costs imposed on the prison service, social services dealing with homelessness, informal care costs, lost output and productivity. The health care system accounted for less than one quarter of the costs.
The Mental Health Commission of Ireland pointed out that the human and social costs associated with mental health problems such as pain, suffering, stigma, reduction in quality of life and suicide were not included in these baseline estimates.
The
Economics of Mental Health Care in Irelandreport was prepared by Eamon O'Shea and Brendan Kennelly of the Irish Centre for Social Gerontology and Department of Economics, NUI Galway.
The report also found that the public would be willing to make tax contributions to new community-based mental health services. However, it also found that people tended to favour spending on cancer and ageing programmes more than mental health care.
The Mental Health Commission said that making mental health a national priority would be an important first step in realising the gains associated with increased spending on mental health.
Dr Edmond O'Dea, Mental Health Commission chairman said we had not yet made the connection between increased public spending on mental health care and individual and societal gains.
"Individuals benefit from increased spending on mental health care, but so do communities, society and the economy. For all of these reasons, mental health must become a national health priority, with specific targets for expenditure, evaluation and outcomes," he said.
"As part of that prioritisation, we should set a target of 10 per cent for mental health care expenditure as a proportion of overall health expenditure, to be realised over a five year period."
