Social Return on Investment (SROI) of mental health related interventions

WHO Collaborating Centre on Investment for Health and Wellbeing, Public Health Wales NHS Trust published a scoping review focusing on Social Return on Investment (SROI) of mental health interventions, finding a good number of SROI studies that show a positive return on investment of the identified interventions.

There is a growing recognition of the need to effectively assess the social value of public health interventions through a wider, comprehensive approach, capturing their social, economic and environmental benefits, outcomes and impacts. Social Return on Investment (SROI) is a methodological approach which incorporates all three aspects for evaluating interventions. Mental health problems are one of the leading causes of ill health and disability worldwide. The study aims to map existing evidence on the social value of mental health interventions that uses the SROI methodology.

This review illustrates that SROI could be a useful tool and source of evidence to help inform policy and funding decisions for investment in mental health and wellbeing, as it accounts for the wider social, economic and environmental benefits of public health interventions. More SROI research in the area of public health is needed to expand the evidence base and develop further the methodology.

Read the full article here.