Mental Illness costing Australians $200 billion per year

The Fairfax - Lateral Economics Index of Australia's Wellbeing ranks mental health as being one of the top four burdens on Australian community welfare and the economy. 

Rather than measuring national welfare in terms of gross domestic product, economists also assess social progress by looking at education, health, income distribution, job satisfaction and the environment.

The Fairfax-Lateral Economics Index of Australia's Wellbeing, which adjusts GDP to account for these factors, measures mental illness as one of Australia's biggest burdens, costing Australians $200 billion annually. This is equivalent to almost 12 per cent of Australia's annual economic output.

This economic burden is said to be largely attributed to increased days off work and lack of productivity, an evident side-effect of mental illnesses such as depression. With one in five adults in Australia suffering from a mental illness, suggestions made in this report highlight the need for more effective and wide-spread treatment of mental illness.

A full article on the report findings has been published by Fairfax media and can be found here.