Global recognition of mental health conditions (including both mental and substance use disorders) has come a long way since the days of hushed whispers about family, friends, or coworkers.
Better understanding and increasingly open conversations, coupled with advances in research and technology, have led to major strides in funding mental health products, services, and other innovations. As the COVID-19 pandemic exacerbated global anxiety and depression, momentum grew from the public sector to support significant initiatives, including the launch of the 988 suicide and crisis lifeline in the United States.1 Meanwhile, the private sector increasingly began to view mental health as an area for investment. Between 2020 and 2022, venture capital investment in mental health tech start-ups increased fourfold compared with the previous four years, and 2021 alone saw the creation of nine new mental health unicorns valued collectively at more than $20 billion.2
Even with increased acknowledgment of mental health challenges and global efforts to destigmatize and fund support for mental illness, the demand for access to screening, services, and treatment is outpacing the financing. Research from United for Global Mental Health and the McKinsey Health Institute, respectively, suggests that mental health faces a global annual funding gap between $200 billion and $350 billion.3
Effectively funding mental health interventions requires both additional investments to close the funding gap and sustainable financing approaches to achieve long-term success. The mental health movement has drawn the attention of researchers, advocates, educators, and changemakers. The next step is asking the question: How can stakeholders work to maximize the impact of their mental health programs and draw new funders to the space?
A guidebook by the Coalition for Mental Health Investment (CMHI) serves as a resource for funders, implementers, innovators, policymakers, and advocates who are actively establishing, shaping, and funding mental health initiatives in their communities (see sidebar, “About this guidebook”). The purpose of the guidebook is to highlight the primary challenges of financing mental health, provide an overview of the mental health value chain and common market failures across each stage, help funders identify a set of evidence-informed financing mechanisms across different levels of complexity, and describe effective enablers to facilitate growth.
Download the guidebook and learn more about the Coalition for Mental Health Investment
Why now? Mental health is entering an exciting frontier of increased innovation and broader public momentum. This includes using artificial intelligence to support task-sharing programs and motivation to reach the Kennedy Forum’s “90-90-90” screening, support, and treatment threshold for mental health conditions by 2033. And a new wave of discovery in psychiatric medications and devices is just beginning.4 The first new type of antipsychotic in over 50 years was approved for use in the United States last year.5 Welsh biotech Draig Therapeutics recently announced it had secured $140 million to develop a new depression treatment.6
In addition, prioritizing mental health interventions can have transformative health and economic outcomes. Scaling known, cost-effective interventions to prevent, treat, and help people recover from mental health conditions could reclaim 150 million years of healthier life globally by 2050, according to analysis by the McKinsey Health Institute. Also, investing in mental health can lead to a positive return on investment. Each $1 invested in scaling mental health interventions could have an economic return of $5 to $6. The global mental health market size reached $448 billion in 2024 and is expected to grow to $573 billion by 2033.
If stakeholders can collectively improve the funding engine that powers mental health innovation, imagine the potential for meaningful societal outcomes and compelling economic returns. The moment to explore new approaches to financing is now.
Key takeaways from this guidebook
Readers will find four main takeaways in this guidebook:
- A new approach to financing is needed. Current financing often does not account for the use cases and market failures that characterize each stage of the mental health value chain. Mental health interventions can struggle to overcome the “technological valley of death”7 from innovation to translation, and the “commercialization valley of death”8 from implementation to widescale adoption. Funding can shift from being agnostic to targeted, addressing specific market failures.
- Certain market failures can be addressed using financing instruments, while others are more systemic in nature. Although great strides have been made in the recognition of mental health, challenges, including long payback periods, misaligned financial incentives, and a lack of sustainable financing models, remain and can be taken on by financial instruments. Broader market failures such as persistent stigma, limited diversity in research, and a shortage of mental health professionals can be addressed using a combination of culturally sensitive implementation plans, programmatic innovations, and strategic shifts in policy.
- Mental health programs can tap into well-established methods of raising funds through financial markets and conventional capital instruments or use more unique ways of raising funds. Funders can consider several core drivers to identify funding mechanisms that match their objectives, whether traditional, innovative (for example, impact bonds, milestone-based prizes), or a combination of both.
- The enablers for scaling a mental health program change based on the resources available and whether the program is on a private or public sector path. Enablers create an environment conducive to the growth of successful, evidence-based interventions. As an example, enablers such as workforce expansion (with both mental health professionals and community volunteers), destigmatization, expansion of financial coverage, and strengthening the supply chain infrastructure can have a multiplier effect in scaling products and services in a public health, low- and middle-resource setting.
Learn more about these takeaways by downloading the guidebook.
How to use this guidebook
While the content of this guidebook can be relevant for many stakeholders, certain sections may stand out for specific groups.
- Funders and investors can review the primary challenges of the mental health financing landscape (page 7), understand the mental health value chain (page 8), and explore a variety of traditional and innovative financing mechanisms (pages 11–15) to identify the most optimal financing mechanisms matched to their strategic objectives.
- Implementers can learn from key success factors (pages 20–23) to understand what is needed for traditional and innovative financing mechanisms to effectively work in practice.
- Innovators can review market failures (page 9), which, if not identified and addressed, could become barriers to their progress as new products, services, and programs are launched.
- Policymakers and advocates can review enablers (pages 17 and 18), which could help scale products and services in low-, middle-, and high-resource settings.
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The authors wish to thank Kristina Durcakova and Marshall Berton for their contributions to this guidebook and article. The authors also wish to thank Alex Schulze, Aline Cossy-Gantner, Anne Dodge, Annika Sten Pärson, Anselm Hennis, Antonis Kousoulis, Benoit Renard, Brandon Staglin, Catarina Mastellaro, Chris McKelvy, Dan Chisholm, Danish Munir, Devora Kestel, Elena Daly, Elle Simmons, Garen Staglin, Garrison Turner, James Sale, Kathy Pike, Katy Anis, Matias Irarrazaval, Melani O’Leary, Natalia Arjomand, Rachel Butler, Renato Oliveira e Souza, Richard Johnson, Richard Lipkin, Shiva Dustdar, Shomsia Ali, Steve Weingarten, and Wendy White Tiegreen for their contributions to this guidebook.
The authors also wish to thank the Coalition for Mental Health Investment’s Global Advisor Organizations (Global Leadership Exchange, Global Mental Health Peer Network, International Alliance of Mental Health Research Funders, Mental Health Innovation Network, Coalition for Scaling Mental Health, UNICEF, United for Global Mental Health, and World Health Organization (observer)) for their collaboration on this initiative.
This article was edited by Vanessa Burke, an associate editor in the Atlanta office.
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