Everyminute.org

Every minute mental illness costs our economy over $600,000. In the two seconds it took you to read that sentence, Americans lost $20,000 due to health care expenditures, loss of earnings and disability benefits. The $317 billion estimated economic burden of mental illness does not even include costs for comorbid conditions and loss of productivity due to premature death, institutionalization, incarceration and homelessness. And the cost of incarceration is enormous, as many as 22% of those in prison have a serious mental illness. The cost of homelessness is also great as serious mental illness affects 1 out of 3 homeless adults. Dr. Thomas Insel, the Director of NIMH, states that even excluding these costs, the $317 billion sum is "equivalent to more than $1,000 a year for every man, woman, and child in the United States."

Dr. Insel continues to say, "The costs of social services for persons with these chronic, disabling illnesses will likely continue to climb. The questions we must ask ourselves are not new, but they remain urgent: How can we ensure that mental health care is cost-efficient as well as effective for patients? How will we reduce homelessness, job loss, and incarceration? And perhaps most importantly, how much should we invest in disseminating effective treatments and finding better treatments in order to reduce these costs?"

Every minute mental illness costs our economy over $600,000. Now is the time to act. Every year that our nation's support of research falls behind inflation, we lose ground in finding better treatments and preventions to ease this enormous economic burden. We can either invest in research now or pay an even greater price later through increased health care costs, homelessness, lost productivity and suicide.