Mental health economics … demystified.

Global Mental Health innovators sometimes get asked – by decision-makers, funders or other researchers – if their innovation is affordable or represents good ‘value for money’.   What do these concepts really mean – are they the same as cost-effectiveness analysis? – and how does one go about measuring them?  This Q&A session provided an opportunity for MHIN members to pose and discuss questions about the health economic aspects of planned or ongoing work, which covered everything from what is a ‘unit cost’ or a ‘QALY’, to how and when to collect cost information, to why be concerned about this topic at all.

This Q&A session took place on Thursday 16th April.  The expert in the hot seat was Dr Dan Chisholm, an active MHIN member and a mental health economist based in WHO’s Department of Mental Health and Substance Abuse. Dan has 20 years of experience in health economics and health systems financing, much of it in the context of low- and middle-income countries.