Understanding mental health (360G-Wellcome-218355_Z_19_Z)

My proposed secondment project will assess the situation and understanding of mental health in OECD countries. Health systems have not yet adequately responded to the burden of mental disorders, resulting in a wide gap between the need for treatment and its provision. The key goals are to: (1) summarise the different methods of measuring mental health across the 36 OECD member countries; (2) understand the drivers and social determinants of mental health over the life cycle, including prenatal, early years, working age and older age; (3) explore the poorly understood relationship between mental health and subjective wellbeing; (4) explore different treatment methods for mental health, both at the micro level including therapy, medication, and complementary and alternative therapies, and at the macro level including mental health resources, policies, programs and interventions available in OECD countries. This project will provide the most up to date and reliable qualitative and quantitative evidence on what is currently known about mental health and ways to effectively tackle its increasing burden. This will provide cross-country learning and sharing of best practices between OECD members and will be extremely useful to inform policy-making around the world. Key words: mental health, determinants, measurements, treatments, well-being