At the end of 2012, a team of researchers from the Harvard School of Public Health and the global economy published a report on the burden that diseases impose on the global economy, present and future. This report monitored the remarkable progress in combating infectious diseases during the past five decades, but it also recorded an increase In the proportion of chronic diseases such as heart disease and diabetes, and in the burden that they impose on public health, as they collectively cause about two-thirds of the deaths that occurred around the world. As for the real surprise of the report, it was predicted that the greatest source of huge future expenses will be caused by mental illness. For this reason, “Sabah Masr” reviews the impact of and the risks of mental illness on the global economy.
The impact of mental illness on the global economy
The opinion of the Harvard School of Health researchers report, that by 2030, it will represent more than a third of the global economic burden devoted to chronic diseases. Six trillion dollars by 2030, which is more than is spent on heart disease, cancer, diabetes and respiratory disease combined.
The report had little impact on public health policy, in part because of its inability to change deeply held and harmful perceptions when it came to mental illness.
Assessment of mental illness in the community
Many consider that mental illness is an individual problem par excellence and that it has nothing to do with the health policies followed, and officials in low-income countries tend to show it as a problem for the rich in first world countries, and based on this vision, attention to mental health becomes a luxury that no one can afford in poverty.
The living reality indicates that mental illnesses affect all aspects of life and in different countries, regardless of their levels of wealth and development.
Reasons for underestimating mental illness
Underestimating mental illness and its cost is due to several reasons. In principle, health officials portray them as if they are fundamentally different from other diseases, but in fact, they are the product of organic disorders in the brain, and from this perspective, they are no different from other chronic diseases.
Many fail to realize the prevalence of mental illnesses due to the desire of their owners to hide them. The Department of Health and Human Services in the United States of America estimates that close to 44 million people over the age of eighteen suffered in 2012 AD, some kind of mental disorder and that about ten million of those Suffer from severe mental illnesses such as the mental disorder that we call psychosis, and despite the availability of opportunities to treat such cases, many patients procrastinate and do not seek treatment until after their conditions become chronic and after a period that may exceed ten years