OECD Report Mental Health Promotion and Prevention Identifies Cost-Effective Interventions to Prevent Depression and Anxiety
SDG 3: Good Health & Well-Being | SDG 8: Decent Work & Economic Growth
Institutions: Ministry of Health & Family Welfare | Ministry of Education | Ministry of Labour & Employment
A new OECD report, “Mental Health Promotion and Prevention” (October 2025), finds that depression and anxiety affect one in five adults across OECD and EU27 countries and impose a heavy social and economic cost. About half of individuals with moderate depressive symptoms remain undiagnosed, risking progression to severe disorders. The report stresses that these conditions often emerge early in life and are worsened by socio-economic disadvantage, unemployment, and low education, leading to lost productivity and higher health-care demand.
Drawing from international best practices, the OECD assessed 11 proven interventions that promote mental well-being and prevent illness. These include school programmes like Zippy’s Friends and Icehearts (Finland), mental health literacy training (Mental Health First Aid), suicide prevention systems (VigilanS, Suicide Prevention Austria), and prompt-access care models (Belgian Mental Health Reform, Norway’s Prompt Mental Health Care). Evidence shows that early and free access to mental-health support reduces symptom severity and duration by up to 87 %, while such programmes also improve school attendance and work participation by 50–60 %.
OECD simulations estimate that scaling up four flagship interventions—Prompt Mental Health Care, Next Stop: Mum, VigilanS, and the iFightDepression Tool—could prevent 26 million new cases of depression and anxiety between 2025 and 2050 and generate EUR 8.5 per capita annual savings in health and labour costs across member countries.
The findings reinforce that prevention and early support are as vital as treatment. For India, where the National Mental Health Programme (NMHP) and Tele-MANAS are expanding, OECD’s evidence can guide investments toward school- and workplace-based mental-health promotion, early detection, and community-level literacy. Integrating cost-effective global interventions into India’s public-health architecture could reduce the burden of untreated anxiety and depression—now among the country’s leading causes of disability—while improving workforce resilience and social outcomes.
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OECD: Mental Health Promotion and Prevention