One in five people live with a mental health condition at any given time, and recent crises have had a significant impact on population mental health. The share of the population reporting symptoms of anxiety and depression as much as doubled during the COVID-19 pandemic. A confluence of emerging and enduring crises – such as the cost- of -living and climate crises – continue to heighten the risk factors for poor mental health, and in 2022 reported prevalence was at least 20% higher than in 2019.
Mental health
Good mental health is essential for people to live healthy and productive lives. Yet, one in two people experience a mental health condition in their lifetime, and the social and economic costs of mental ill-health are high: mental ill-health can have devastating effects on individuals, families and communities, and drive economic costs of up to 4% of GDP.
Key messages
Effective mental health services, and well-targeted and comprehensive mental health policies, can help to keep people in good mental health and support people to manage or recover from mental health conditions.
Yet, there are significant gaps in mental health systems performance. Two thirds of people seeking mental health support report difficulties getting it, and many countries struggle to identify whether their mental health systems are delivering effective results. OECD work points countries towards the most effective mental health policies and develops internationally comparable mental health indicators that improve understanding of mental health performance.
Living with a mental health condition makes it harder to stay in school or employment, harder to study or work effectively, and harder to stay in good physical health. The OECD has estimated that mental health conditions drive economic costs of up to 4% of GDP, with more than a third of these costs related to lower rates of employment and productivity.
Obstacles to ensuring good mental health for everyone cannot be overcome within the health system alone, and a “mental-health-in-all-policies” whole-government approach is needed. All OECD countries have recognised the importance of an integrated approach to mental health by endorsing the OECD Recommendation of the Council on Integrated Mental Health, Skills, and Work Policy, but more work is needed to turn this commitment into impactful policy change.
Policies to promote mental well-being and prevent mental ill-health can make a meaningful impact on population health and represent good value-for-money.
School and workplace-based programmes are common and effective ways to promote good mental -health and prevent mental ill-health. More than half of all mental health conditions have their onset in childhood and youth, and prevention and promotion measures are particularly effective in infancy, childhood, and adolescence. Psychosocial risk reduction and workplace mental health promotion policies can help keep people mentally healthy and working well.
Context
The burden of population mental ill-health
The COVID-19 pandemic seriously disrupted the way people live, work and learn, and fueled significant increases in mental distress. Anxiety and depression increased in all OECD countries with available data, and as much as doubled in some countries.
There has been some recovery in population mental health as the pandemic situation improved, but data also suggest that mental ill-health remains elevated. In Belgium, Korea, the United Kingdom and the United States, data from 2022 typically show small decreases in the share of the population reporting symptoms of depression, compared to 2020. However, the prevalence of depression for 2022 remains at least 20% higher than pre-pandemic, and in some cases over double or triple the pre-pandemic rate.
