Britain’s mental healthcare system is world-leading in quality and ‘bang per buck’, study finds

In the context of the considerable ongoing global pressure of the Covid-19 pandemic and the war in Ukraine, a new price index has compared the cost, quality, and ‘bang per buck' of mental health services worldwide.

Kenkou, a digital health monitoring company, has revealed the findings of a study examining worldwide standards of mental healthcare. In order to gain a fully comprehensive understanding of the quality and value of mental healthcare globally, the study analysed the mental healthcare data of over 120 countries around the world. Researchers then assessed the quality of services based on the country's cost of care, medicines, and the prevalence of mental health conditions compared to a citizen’s access to treatment.

The study found that while, predictively, some of the most highly funded mental health infrastructures in the world scored high in quality, with the USA ranking 1st for most expensive and 1st for quality, the UK 30th and 2nd, and Finland 7th and 3rd. Nevertheless, this trend was not ubiquitous as other countries with high GDPs, comparatively, fared less well. For example, in terms of budget, Greece ranked 18th but had the highest number of people per 100 thousand inhabitants with depression (6.1) and 14th for anxiety (5.8).

The UK ranks high in quality and relatively low in price

The top five countries ranked highest for best mental health infrastructures (the score measuring accessibility and quality of mental health services) were determined to be:

1. USA
2. UK
3. ?Finland
4. Czechia
5. Slovakia

Further analysis of the data showed that, overall, the UK’s mental healthcare system was relatively good value in terms of global price. The UK average cost per day for mental health hospitalisation was calculated at ￡412, and comparatively, the countries with the highest were found to be:

1. Australia (￡731)
2. ???Canada (￡659)
3. Denmark (￡600)
4. UAE (￡573)
5. ?USA (￡561)

In addition, in terms of national affordability (the average cost of medicine and care compared to the worldwide median), the UK was calculated at -4.59%, while the least affordable countries were:

1. USA (2818%)
2. Switzerland (814%)
3. Singapore (606%)
4. Germany (577%)
5. Australia 443%

‘Technology can play a key role in increasing quality of care and access’

Matthias Puls, CEO and Managing Director of kenkou, said that comparisons between different countries “is not always useful given the difference in purchasing power between the Global North and South.”

However, he added that during this period of growing social disturbance and related anxiety, it has never been more critical to understand how countries can increase the quality and accessibility of services to meet those borderless challenges.

“Every country in the world should be braced for treating rising numbers of mental health patients, something that will pose a challenge to many already-stretched healthcare systems. Technology can play a key role in increasing people’s access to mental healthcare as well as improving the quality of the care they receive.”

“Since the pandemic and with mental healthcare services stretched to breaking point, it is evident that the sector is in urgent need of help. Regrettably, given the well-established connection between mental health conditions such as stress and development of chronic diseases, there is a very real risk that the current mental healthcare crisis could spill into the broader healthcare sector with widespread ramifications.”