Our study aims to address the evidence gap regarding understanding the longer-term economic impacts of mental health problems in early life through developing a methodology to estimate harmonised costs for health service use in three key British birth cohort datasets – NSHD, NCDS and BCS70. It was a pleasure to collaborate on this work with such a fantastic group of colleagues, and we are delighted that our publication has received this recognition.
Dr Petra Gronholm, Research Fellow at the Department of Health Service and Population Research at the IoPPN
28 March 2023
IoPPN publication awarded the 2023 Willard Manning Award in Mental Health Policy and Economics Research
A research publication by the Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology & Neuroscience (IoPPN) at King’s College London and London School of Economics (LSE) has been announced winner of the International Center of Mental Health Policy and Economics 2023 Willard Manning Award in Mental Health Policy and Economics Research.
The publication, ‘Health Service Costs in Adulthood Associated with Adolescent Mental Health Problems in Three British Cohorts’, is led by Dr Petra Gronholm, Research Fellow at the Department of Health Service and Population Research at the IoPPN and Dr Sara Evans-Lacko, Associate Professorial Research Fellow at the Care Policy and Evaluation Centre (CPEC) at LSE. It was published in the Journal of Mental Health Policy and Economics (JMHPE) in June 2022.
The Award was assigned during the Ceremony of the Awards on Friday 24 March 2023, at the Opening of the Sixteenth Workshop on Costs and Assessment in Psychiatry - Mental Health Outcomes, Services, Economics, Policy Research in Venice.
Dr Gronholm and Dr Evans-Lacko collaborated on this research with Professor Martin Knapp, Ms Nicola Brimblecombe, Dr Eva-Maria Bonin, Professor Mauricio S. Hoffmann, Dr Derek King and Dr Ties Hoomans (LSE), Professor Barbara Maughan (IoPPN), Professor Marcus Richards (University College London), Rajendra Kadel (Public Health Wales) and Nick O'Shea (Centre for Mental Health).
Mental health problems are common among young people and they can have long lasting effects into adulthood. These effects can have economic consequences, both in the short term and into adulthood and across the life course. The study demonstrates the potential for comparing service use and associated costs by age, type of health service contact and adolescent mental health problem across different birth cohorts. Insights from this research could provide new methods and statistics to support further work on adolescent mental health, for example to examine the case for shifting resources to early intervention and prevention.
Research such as this will inform the work of the King’s Maudsley Partnership for Children and Young People, a unique collaboration between King’s IoPPN and South London and Maudsley NHS Foundation Trust which will allow clinicians and researchers to collaborate even more closely to find new ways to predict, prevent and treat mental health disorders in young people.
Youth mental health problems have a range of impacts on health, employment, relationship and other life chances. This leads to cycles of disadvantage. Our research can help to develop the limited information about the long-term economic impacts in the UK and provides information to guide investment in youth and family mental health. This evidence provides an important step to take action to fund and implement care and support initiatives which can prevent and treat mental health difficulties early on.
Dr Sara Evans-Lacko, Associate Professorial Research Fellow at the Care Policy and Evaluation Centre (CPEC) at LSE
The International Center of Mental Health Policy and Economics is a non-profit organisation that aims to integrate disciplines whose research focuses on the mental health sector from different perspectives, such as psychiatry, economics, public health, health services analysis and sociology. They publish the JMHPE and grant the Willard Manning Award every two years to an article that displays excellence in the field of mental health policy and economics.
The Willard Manning Award in Mental Health Policy and Economics Research is granted to an article of exceptional research value in the development of the interdisciplinary field of mental health policy and economics, following a competitive process based on editorial nominations and shortlisting. The Award includes the amount of $1,000 USD, will be made to an article of exceptional research value in the development of the interdisciplinary field of mental health policy and economics.
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Emeritus Professor of Developmental Epidemiology