The Kennedy Forum Chief Policy Officer Nathaniel Z. Counts, JD co-authored a new study that helps illustrate how government analysts might account for long-term economic benefits of good youth mental health policy.
Key findings:
A hypothetical policy of early intervention and integrated care has the potential to:
- Produce more than $52 billion in additional federal funding over the next 10 years
- Contribute to $5,658 in annual wages when depression is prevented in adolescence
- Help millions more students graduate high school and go on to college
- Increase participation in the labor force
- Lessen dependency on public insurance
Counts’ report was published by open-access journal PLOS Medicine, which issued a Jan. 16 release on the findings:
“A growing body of research shows that improving adolescent mental health holds the potential to yield a variety of long-term benefits, such as greater labor force participation and lower usage of public assistance. However, government budget analysts rarely include these effects when assessing potential new policies because most studies on the topic do not present parameters that are comprehensive enough to be compatible with analysts’ typical approaches for modeling policy outcomes.
To help address that gap, Counts and colleagues analyzed data on 3,343 participants in an ongoing study known as the National Longitudinal Study of Youth 1997, which regularly captures information through interviews. Using data from the year 2000, when participants were aged 15 to 17, and again from 2010, the researchers examined relationships between the participants’ mental health as adolescents and later economic outcomes.”
Counts will incorporate these efforts into The Kennedy Forum’s 2025 broader policy goals, defining a clear solution and path forward for progress on key economic and mental health outcomes. Over the course of the year, the organization will convene and engage stakeholders who represent a variety of industries and areas of expertise to create seminal tools, research, and recommendations. The ultimate goal? To push effective policies through.
“This kind of work helps illustrate a clearer picture for people in Congress who are trying to make decisions based on the information they have,” Counts said. “In the coming year, The Kennedy Forum and its partners can give policymakers and budget analysts a more complete picture to consider, leveraging the principles in this study and applying them to mental health investments and outcomes throughout the life course.”
“One of the greatest barriers to structural improvement in mental health is the scale at which we can solve problems,” Counts said. “Mental health programs typically exist in smaller, disconnected programs throughout the country, and consequently evaluations of their impact are piece-meal as well. We want to show that, nationwide, we can create measurable, cohesive change with investments that are actually quite small in comparison to their potential for positively affecting lives and economies.”
To learn more about the policy work at The Kennedy Forum and how we will reach our 90-90-90 goals by 2033, please contact info@thekennedyforum.org or sign up for emails.
