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Mental Health: Problem Area Report

  1. Overview
  2. A large and neglected problem
  3. Effective treatments
  4. Back-of-the-envelope cost-effectiveness comparison​
Author: Michael Plant​

Overview

​
Mental health problems affect a huge number of people around the world but remain neglected by governments and NGOs. However, effective treatments exist. This makes mental health a very promising problem to work on to improve global happiness. In this series of posts, we present a shallow investigation of the scale, neglectedness and tractability of mental health as a cause area. We conduct a basic back-of-the-envelope calculation comparing the cost-effectiveness of
a mental health charity, StrongMinds, with GiveDirectly, a poverty-alleviating charity recommended by GiveWell. Although rough, this suggests that mental health interventions could be as or more cost-effective than current recommended poverty-alleviating charities. More research and data are needed to be able to more accurately compare mental health interventions to alternatives; we outline some areas where further research would be helpful.
Next ⇨ ​
A large and neglected problem

About

Our strategy
Our story
​Our team

Research

​Research agenda
Philosophy of well-being
Measuring happiness
Life satisfaction theories
Subjective scales: comparability
Cash transfers: systematic review
Mental health: programme evaluation
Mental health: problem area report
Pain: problem area report
Positive education: research plan

Take action

Reading list
Donation advice
​Career advice
​
Vacancies
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​ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.
The Happier Lives Institute (“HLI”) is operating through a fiscal sponsorship with Players Philanthropy Fund (Federal Tax ID: 27-6601178), a Maryland charitable trust with federal tax-exempt status as a public charity under Section 501(c)(3) of the Internal Revenue Code. Contributions to HLI are tax-deductible to the fullest extent of the law.
  • About
    • Our strategy
    • Our story
    • Our team
  • Research
    • Research agenda
    • Theoretical research >
      • Philosophy of well-being
      • Measuring happiness
      • Life satisfaction theories
      • Subjective scales: comparability
    • Intervention reports >
      • Cash transfers
    • Mental health programme evaluation
    • Problem area reports >
      • Pain
      • Mental health
      • Positive education
  • Blog
  • Take action
    • Reading list
    • Donation advice
    • Career advice
    • Vacancies
  • Donate