Prof Crick Lund and Prof John Joska
PROFESSORS CRICK Lund and John Joska of the Department of Psychiatry and Mental Health, University of Cape Town, have received funding from Prudential Africa for research on mental health workplace programmes in Africa.
This is because despite the massive economic costs of mental illness, African countries have historically under-invested in mental health.
Most African countries spend less than 1% of their health budgets on mental health, when a minimum of 5% is recommended for low-income countries.
High level policy commitments have been made by most countries, but allocation of appropriate budgets and human resources for mental health are sorely lacking.
In Ethiopia, Ghana, Nigeria and South Africa, more than 90% of people living with mental illness do not receive any form of evidence-based care.
“Investing in mental health would benefit African governments and employers in several ways.
“A global return on investment (RoI) analysis shows that for every dollar invested in treatment for depression and anxiety, there will be a $2-5 RoI over the 15 years of the Sustainable Development Goals (2015-2030).
“Workplace mental health programmes do not only lead to improved mental health and wellbeing. They also improve productivity. There are important human right reasons to invest in mental health: people have a right to gain access to mental healthcare that can improve their wellbeing.
There is growing consensus from international development agencies, such as the World Bank, that mental health is not only a health need, but also a social and economic development priority,” a statement from Prudential Africa indicated.
It therefore said it was vital that African governments proceed with implementing the WHO Global Mental Health Action Plan (2013-2020), which has been endorsed by most UN member states and provides a roadmap for national investments in mental health, adding that the global economy has been devastated by the COVID-19 pandemic. In Africa, it has led to significant contraction of national economies, and more people living in poverty.
“The journey to recovery will be a long and difficult one for African economies and will be strongly dependent on the resilience and productivity of the workforce. There is increasing global evidence that productivity in the workplace is profoundly influenced by mental health,” it said.
For example, in Ethiopia a survey in April 2020 found that the number of people experiencing depressive symptoms had tripled compared to pre-COVID-19 levels.
By Samuel Boadi