The value of mental health: where the burden really sits – and why it matters

Mental health rarely announces itself with a single dramatic moment. More often, its impact accumulates quietly – through days of reduced concentration, weeks of disrupted routines, and months of withdrawing from colleagues, friends, and daily life. Over time, this gradual detachment narrows opportunity: at work, at home, and in relationships.

In recent years, mental health awareness has grown rapidly. Conversations that once felt difficult are now happening in workplaces, schools, homes and boardrooms. This shift is welcome, but it has coincided with rising prevalence, persistent gaps in access to support and growing pressure on labor markets already facing demographic and fiscal strain.

Why measurement matters

What we measure shapes what we prioritize. Much of the mental health debate still focuses on what is most visible: diagnoses, accessing treatment, and health care spending. But focusing narrowly on health budgets risks missing where the greatest losses occur – and where earlier intervention could preserve the most value.

That is why we published The Value of Mental Health. While prevalence trends help establish scale, they only tell part of the story. Our aim is not simply to count how many people are affected, but to quantify the everyday realities of mental health conditions for people, economies, and protection systems – including costs that fall outside formal systems, from wellbeing loss and workforce participation to informal care.

Our report examines six countries – Australia, Chile, Germany, Malaysia, the UAE, and the UK. Despite very different national contexts, a consistent pattern emerges: the biggest costs sit upstream of health care spending.

Where the burden really sits

It starts with the individual – in the days when people struggle to function, concentrate, or manage everyday demands. On average, someone living with a mental health condition loses the equivalent of about two months of healthy life each year (measured in disability‑adjusted life years). This is not time away from work or daily life, but reduced capacity and functioning spread across days, weeks, and months.

Scaled across populations, these losses far exceed spending on formal mental health care. They remind us that mental health is not just about illness or treatment, but daily functioning and quality of life.

Families and communities are often the first to absorb the burden, well before formal systems reach their limits.

Across all six countries, informal care from families and communities is one of the largest, least visible elements of support. In Malaysia, Chile, and the UAE, the estimated value of unpaid care provided by families exceeds public mental health spending.

When formal support is delayed or fragmented, families become the default safety net – absorbing care responsibilities that formal systems cannot meet at scale.

As the burden grows, it also impacts employers. Absence is visible and measured. But it accounts for only a small share of the total economic impact. The larger loss occurs when people struggle to stay connected to work – or never establish that connection at all.

In the UK, for example, just over half (53%) of people living with a mental health condition are in work, compared to 82% of those without one – a gap of 29 percentage points. While the gap is smaller in other countries, it remains significant.

Most concerning, these patterns emerge earlier in life. In several markets, mental health conditions are now being identified before individuals enter the labor market, especially among adolescents and young adults. Early recognition can be a strength. But when support is delayed or poorly connected to education to work transitions, early distress can quickly become long-term disengagement.

What this reality means for employers

Employers aren’t being asked to “solve” mental health. But its consequences often become visible first in the workplace – where delays in support translate into lost participation and productivity.

Managers notice changes in performance and engagement. Teams absorb disruption. Organizations handle extended absences or challenging returns. All this tends to happen before someone reaches specialist care, and often after early warning signs.

That’s why timing matters.

As insurers – and as employers ourselves – we have a direct stake in understanding these pressures and how early action can improve outcomes.

Our role isn’t to replace health care systems, but to help connect people to support earlier – reducing the risk that temporary distress becomes lasting disengagement. In practice, that includes workplace-linked support, early psychological intervention, and access to virtual care and counseling. When time away from work is needed, coordinated return-to-work pathways can make the difference between recovery and permanent exit.

Turning visibility into action

Awareness has brought the topic of mental health into the open. That’s real progress. But visibility alone doesn’t prevent loss. The next step is ensuring recognition translates into earlier action, stronger connection, and sustained participation – for people, for employers, and for society.

The Value of Mental Health invites us to look beyond headline prevalence and ask a more important question: are we measuring what matters most – and recognizing what it will take to better protect mental health in everyday life?

Because mental health shapes resilience every day. And the sooner we act, the more we can protect it.