Financing of mental health: the current situation and ways forward

Welcome to our exploration of mental health financing. The report provides a macro analysis of government and donor mental health finance to understand what is the global finance gap and what is required to ensure widespread provision of mental health services.

Financing Mental Health; the current situation and ways forward

Delve into “Financing Mental Health: the current situation and ways forward” that examines the critical need for immediate and sustained investment in mental health worldwide. 

Key findings from the report include;

  • The global annual mental health finance gap is at least $200 billion. The majority of countries in the world are far from meeting even modest mental health funding targets. 
  • Aid for mental health dropped by a third from 2018 to 2021, from $300m to $200m, with private philanthropists making up over half of the total spending. 
  • Government international aid agencies need to invest more in mental health. If they increased their investment to 1% of their overall development assistance for health, there would be almost an extra half  billion dollars available per year.
  • There is no universally agreed upon definition for development assistance for mental health. A definition needs to be developed and agreed upon, and this definition should be used to systematically report on and analyse Development Assistance for Mental Health flows.