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Huffington Post:
Richard Layard: Why we should put mental health first

13 May 2013

This post by Richard Layard is part of a series produced by The Huffington Post, the University of Wisconsin-Madison's Center for Investigating Healthy Minds and the Global Health Institute in conjunction with the Change your Mind, Change the World 2013 conference. This series of dialogues on global health, sustainable well-being and science & happiness will feature his Holiness, the Dalai Lama, and other thought leaders.
"If you had a billion dollars to make the world a better place, how would you spend it?" My answer is always the same. I would spend it on modern evidence-based psychological therapy for people with depression and crippling anxiety, and for children with disordered conduct. Why? First, this is a truly massive problem which wrecks the lives of over one in 10 people worldwide. In rich countries, it is the biggest single cause of misery, accounting for more misery than physical illness does - and much more than is caused by poverty or unemployment.

This article was published by the Huffington Post on May 13, 2013
Link to article here

Related publications
'How Mental Illness Loses Out in the NHS'. A report by the Centre for Economic Performance's Mental Health Policy Group. Published June 18, 2012.
Details
Download the report here
'The Depression Report: A New Deal for Depression and Anxiety Disorders'. Report from the Centre for Economic Performance's Mental Health Policy Group, 2006
link to report here

Related links
Richard Layard webpage
Mental Health Policy Group webpage
Wellbeing Programme webpage

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