Giving Compass' Take:

• This post on Effective Altruism Forum gives a general overview of the mental health charity sector from a cost-effectiveness perspective, and makes some recommendations.

• Whether you agree with the opinions of the article or not, there's no doubt that we need to address mental health through more strategic funding. Identifying priority areas is a good place to start.

• Here are more details about the funding gap for mental health.

In this piece, I argue that mental illness may be one of the world’s most pressing problems.

Here is a summary of the key points:

  • Not only does mental illness seem to cause as much, if not more, total worldwide unhappiness than global poverty, it also seems far more neglected.
  • Effective mental health interventions exist currently. These have been improving over time and we can expect further improvements.
  • I estimate the cost-effectiveness of a particular mental health organization, StrongMinds, and claim it is (at least) four times more effective per dollar than GiveDirectly, a GiveWell recommended top charity. This assumes we understand cost-effectiveness in terms of happiness, as measured by self-reported life satisfaction.
  • I explain why it’s unclear if StrongMinds is better than all the other GiveWell recommended life-improving charities (due to inconsistent evidence regarding negative spillovers from wealth increases) and life-saving charities (due to methodological issues about where on a 0-10 life satisfaction scale is the "neutral point" equivalent to being dead).
  • I make some initial suggestions for the highest-impact careers, as well as alternative donation opportunities. No thorough analysis has yet been done to compare these.
  • While mental health has the most obvious appeal for those who believe we ought to be maximizing the happiness of people alive today, I explain that belief isn’t necessary to conclude it is of the highest priority: someone could, in principle, value what happens to all possible sentient life and still reasonably decide this cause is where they’ll do the most good. I raise, but do not seek to resolve, the many crucial considerations here.

Read the full article about making an impact on mental health by Michael Plant at forum.effectivealtruism.org.