Economic analysis of workplace mental health promotion and mental disorder prevention programmes and of their potential contribution to EU health, social and economic policy objectives

I thought the executive summary a bit long to put in a blog post so I've used the introduction to this report instead.

Final report published May 2013 by Matrix for the European Union’s Executive Agency for Health and Consumers

Introduction

Matrix was commissioned by the European Agency for Health and Consumers (EAHC) and DG Health and Consumers (SANCO) to assess the potential contribution that mental health promotion and mental disorder prevention programmes can make to the EU-policy objectives of promoting the sustainability of health and social welfare systems, increasing the employment rate of the population and increasing the productivity of the economy.

With this aim in mind, the objective of this study was to provide an economic analysis of mental health promotion and mental disorder prevention programmes at workplaces. Specifically, the study included a review of the existing scientific literature, case studies with Member States and workplaces, and an economic model.

In combination, these methods were designed to provide answers to the following questions:

1. What are the major past and expected future trends in public and workplace mental health and illness in the EU?
2. What is the economic impact of mental disorders on health and social welfare systems, employment and productivity in the EU?
3. What type of workplace mental health promotion and mental disorder programmes are available? What is their economic return on investment? What is their impact on health and social welfare systems, employment and productivity?
4. What is the role of health and social welfare systems in workplace mental health promotion and mental disorder programmes?
5. What would be the contribution of mainstreamed workplace mental health promotion and mental disorder programmes to realising EU-health, social and economic policy objectives?

The remainder of the report is organised as follows:

• Section 3 describes the different methods applied in the study.
• Section 4 presents the results from the study. These are organised into five sections following the structure of the research questions presented above.
• Section 5 summarises the results and provides recommendations for future research.

Full text (PDF 135pp)

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