The economic impact of initiatives to reduce stigma: demonstration of a modelling approach.

AIMS: This paper seeks to provide a methodology to assess the cost-effectiveness of anti-stigma campaigns for people with mental health problems.
METHODS: The costs of running a national campaign in Scotland were obtained and combined with the number of adults in the Scottish population and the estimated number of people with improved attitudes towards people with mental health problems. A decision model was constructed to estimate the economic impact of a campaign in terms of increased use of services by people with depression and increased work time.
RESULTS: If the campaign caused 10% of changed attitudes then it was estimated to cost pound 35 per one less person who felt that people with mental health problems were dangerous and pound 186 per one less person who felt the public needs protection from people with mental health problems. The decision model suggested extra economic benefits (employment gains minus service costs) as a result of an anti-stigma campaign compared to the absence of a campaign.
CONCLUSIONS: Data on the economic impact of anti-stigma campaigns are scarce and evaluation is intrinsically difficult. We have demonstrated a method to conduct such analyses. The model proposed here should be tested further as data become available.