Lost productivity due to poor mental health will see almost $7.5bn ripped from the New South Wales economy by 2025 if more is not done to support workers and businesses, according to a new report.
The Impact Economics and Policy report – commissioned by the NSW Council of Social Service (Ncoss) – looked at the compounding impacts of repeated natural disasters and the pandemic on the mental health of the population.
It found rates of depression and anxiety had increased in recent years, with young people some of the worst affected. This includes an almost 50% jump in the number of teen girls presenting for self-harm or suicidal thoughts from 2018 to 2021.
The report also found that some of the negative impacts on mental health and their effects on the economy could be negated.
“While recent increases in funding are a positive step, an urgent injection of $430m per year is required to bring NSW up to the average level of expenditure on community mental health services across other states and territories,” the report read.
The research found the impact of lost productivity between last year and 2025 would reach $7.4bn, which the report noted was “likely to be an underestimate” due to the underlying assumption that people were accessing services and recovering at pre-pandemic rates.
Ncoss’s chief executive, Joanna Quilty, said the research highlighted the impact that the pandemic has had on people’s lives, their ability to work and the need for more help.
“For people in the workforce, worsening mental health may translate to increased absenteeism, or turning up to work but not being as productive because of feeling anxious or depressed,” Quilty said.
Sydney business owner Anne* was not surprised by the findings.
She struggled running a publishing business, navigating changing health advice, managing the mental health of her employees – all while also overseeing a teenager learning from home at her house at the same time.
“My mental health took a hit,” Anne said.
“I was very flat dealing with my own things and then managing other people’s mental health.
“There were a lot of tears, a lot of re-management and buying new equipment to make it all work.”
She said the challenging years have taught her skills in keeping an eye out on her employees’ mental health and employing techniques to help them, including a weekly group training session.
The Mental Health Coordinating Council’s chief executive, Carmel Tebbutt, said while everyone had been affected in some way, it was vulnerable groups who were worst off and implored the government to focus efforts there.
“Prescription rates are up, [emergency department] presentation rates are up, and … in particular, young people have been very hard hit,” Tebbutt said.
“There’s a social cost, but there’s also an economic cost to the impact of the pandemic on people’s mental health. We’ve really got a window of opportunity now to try and address this so that we can pull down that cost.”
She said the government needed to spend at least 20% more on mental health services to get them up to where they should be.
“We know that about 154,000 people across Australia with severe and complex mental illness are missing out on psychosocial support services,” she said.
“Access to quality effective services can make all the difference; it can make a difference to the onset of a mental illness, it can make a difference to the severity of mental illness, and it can also make a difference to the duration.”
*Name changed to protect privacy
In Australia, the crisis support service Lifeline is 13 11 14. In the US, the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline is 1-800-273-8255. In the UK, Samaritans can be contacted on 116 123. Other international suicide helplines can be found at befrienders.org
