Meadows, G. N. et al. Resolving the paradox of increased mental health expenditure and stable prevalence. Aust. N. Z. J. Psychiatry 53, 844–850 (2019).
Budget 2021-22: Generational change and record investment in the health of Australians. Department of Health and Aged Care https://www.health.gov.au/ministers/the-hon-greg-hunt-mp/media/budget-2021-22-generational-change-and-record-investment-in-the-health-of-australians (2021).
The National Children’s Mental Health and Wellbeing Strategy (National Mental Health Commission, 2021).
Cuijpers, P. Preventing the onset of depressive disorders: state of the art and future directions. Curr. Dir. Psychol. Sci. 34, 51–56 (2025).
GBD 2021 Diseases and Injuries Collaborators. Global incidence, prevalence, years lived with disability (YLDs), disability-adjusted life-years (DALYs), and healthy life expectancy (HALE) for 371 diseases and injuries in 204 countries and territories and 811 subnational locations, 1990–2021: a systematic analysis for the Global Burden of Disease Study 2021. Lancet 403, 2133–2161 (2024).
Wilkins, R., Vera-Toscano, E. & Botha, F. The Household, Income and Labour Dynamics in Australia Survey: Selected Findings from Waves 1 to 21 (Melbourne Institute: Applied Economic and Social Research, 2024).
Causes of death, Australia. Australian Bureau of Statistics https://www.abs.gov.au/statistics/health/causes-death/causes-death-australia/2023 (2024).
Biddle, N., Edwards, B. & Rehill, P. The Relationship between COVID-19 Policies and Subjective Wellbeing—August 2022 (The ANU Centre for Social Research and Methods, 2022).
Skinner, A., Occhipinti, J. A., Song, Y. J. C. & Hickie, I. B. Population mental health improves with increasing access to treatment: evidence from a dynamic modelling analysis. BMC Psychiatry 22, 692 (2022).
Haidt, J. The Anxious Generation: How the Great Rewiring of Childhood Is Causing an Epidemic of Mental Illness (Random House, 2024).
McGorry, P. D. et al. The Lancet Psychiatry Commission on youth mental health. Lancet Psychiatry 11, 731–774 (2024).
Patel, V. et al. The Lancet Commission on global mental health and sustainable development. Lancet 392, 1553–1598 (2018).
Scott, K. M. et al. Association of mental disorders with subsequent chronic physical conditions: world mental health surveys from 17 countries. JAMA Psychiatry 73, 150–158 (2016).
Clark, C. et al. Impact of childhood and adulthood psychological health on labour force participation and exit in later life. Psychol. Med. 47, 1597–1608 (2017).
Santomauro, D. F., Purcell, C., Whiteford, H. A., Ferrari, A. J. & Vos, T. Grading disorder severity and averted burden by access to treatment within the GBD framework: a case study with anxiety disorders. Lancet Psychiatry 10, 272–281 (2023).
Lund, C. et al. Social determinants of mental disorders and the Sustainable Development Goals: a systematic review of reviews. Lancet Psychiatry 5, 357–369 (2018).
Occhipinti, J.-A. et al. The influence of economic policies on social environments and mental health. Bull. World Health Org. 102, 323–329 (2024).
Braveman, P. & Gottlieb, L. The social determinants of health: it’s time to consider the causes of the causes. Publ. Health Rep. 129, 19–31 (2014).
Occhipinti, J.-A. et al. Estimating the Mental Wealth of nations: valuing social production and investment. Nat. Ment. Health 1, 247–253 (2023).
Occhipinti, J. A. et al. Measuring, modeling, and forecasting the mental wealth of nations. Front. Publ. Health 10, 879183 (2022).
Bloom D. E. et al. The Global Economic Burden of Noncommunicable Diseases (World Economic Forum, 2011).
Roehrig, C. Mental disorders top the list of the most costly conditions in the United States: $201 billion. Health Aff. 35, 1130–1135 (2016).
Knapp, M. et al. Investing in recovery: making the business case for effective interventions for people with schizophrenia and psychosis. LSE Research Online Documents on Economics 56773 (London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library, 2014).
Mental Health (Productivity Commission, 2020); https://www.pc.gov.au/inquiries/completed/mental-health/report
Kularatna, S. et al. Cost-effectiveness analysis of paediatric mental health interventions: a systematic review of model-based economic evaluations. BMC Health Serv. Res. 22, 542 (2022).
McDaid, D., Park, A. L. & Wahlbeck, K. The economic case for the prevention of mental illness. Annu. Rev. Publ. Health 40, 373–389 (2019).
Le, L. K. et al. Cost-effectiveness evidence of mental health prevention and promotion interventions: a systematic review of economic evaluations. PLoS Med. 18, e1003606 (2021).
Feldman, I., Gebreslassie, M., Sampaio, F., Nystrand, C. & Ssegonja, R. Economic evaluations of public health interventions to improve mental health and prevent suicidal thoughts and behaviours: a systematic literature review. Adm. Policy Ment. Health 48, 299–315 (2021).
Knapp, M. & Wong, G. Economics and mental health: the current scenario. World Psychiatry 19, 3–14 (2020).
Lathe, J., Silverwood, R. J., Hughes, A. D. & Patalay, P. Examining how well economic evaluations capture the value of mental health. Lancet Psychiatry 11, 221–230 (2024).
Ha, N. T., Huong, N. T., Anh, V. N. & Anh, N. Q. Modelling in economic evaluation of mental health prevention: current status and quality of studies. BMC Health Serv. Res. 22, 906 (2022).
National Report Card 2023: Monitoring the Performance of Australia’s Mental Health System (National Mental Health Commission, 2024).
Rosenberg, S. & Salvador-Carulla, L. PERSPECTIVES: accountability for mental health: the Australian experience. J. Ment. Health Policy Econ. 20, 37–54 (2017).
Crosland, P. et al. Incorporating complexity and system dynamics into economic modelling for mental health policy and planning. Pharmacoeconomics 42, 1301–1315 (2024).
Allen, J., Balfour, R., Bell, R. & Marmot, M. Social determinants of mental health. Int. Rev. Psychiatry 26, 392–407 (2014).
Lund, C. Global mental health and its social determinants: how should we intervene?. Behav. Res. Ther. 169, 104402 (2023).
Kirkbride, J. B. et al. The social determinants of mental health and disorder: evidence, prevention and recommendations. World Psychiatry 23, 58 (2024).
Ridley, M., Rao, G., Schilbach, F. & Patel, V. Poverty, depression, and anxiety: causal evidence and mechanisms. Science 370, eaay0214 (2020).
Na, P. J. et al. Social determinants of health and suicide-related outcomes: a review of meta-analyses. JAMA Psychiatry 82, 337–346 (2025).
Guidance on Mental Health Policy and Strategic Action Plans (World Health Organization, 2025).
Littleton, C. & Reader, C. To what extent do Australian child and youth health, and education wellbeing policies, address the social determinants of health and health equity?: a policy analysis study. BMC Public Health 22, 2290 (2022).
Oswald, T. K. et al. Interventions targeting social determinants of mental disorders and the Sustainable Development Goals: a systematic review of reviews. Psychol. Med. 54, 1475–1499 (2024).
Occhipinti, J.-A. et al. Mental health: build predictive models to steer policy. Nature 597, 633–636 (2021).
Occhipinti, J. A. et al. Reducing youth suicide: systems modelling and simulation to guide targeted investments across the determinants. BMC Med. 19, 61 (2021).
Skinner, A., Osgood, N. D., Occhipinti, J.-A., Song, Y. J. C. & Hickie, I. B. Unemployment and underemployment are causes of suicide. Sci. Adv. 9, eadg3758 (2023).
Nordt, C., Warnke, I., Seifritz, E. & Kawohl, W. Modelling suicide and unemployment: a longitudinal analysis covering 63 countries, 2000–11. Lancet Psychiatry 2, 239–245 (2015).
Davies, C. et al. Prenatal and perinatal risk and protective factors for psychosis: a systematic review and meta-analysis. Lancet Psychiatry 7, 399–410 (2020).
Grummitt, L., Baldwin, J. R., Lafoa’i, J., Keyes, K. M. & Barrett, E. L. Burden of mental disorders and suicide attributable to childhood maltreatment. JAMA Psychiatry 81, 782–788 (2024).
Danese, A. & Widom, C. S. Associations between objective and subjective experiences of childhood maltreatment and the course of emotional disorders in adulthood. JAMA Psychiatry 80, 1009–1016 (2023).
Holt‐Lunstad, J. Social connection as a critical factor for mental and physical health: evidence, trends, challenges, and future implications. World Psychiatry 23, 312–332 (2024).
Breedvelt, J. J. F. et al. The effects of neighbourhood social cohesion on preventing depression and anxiety among adolescents and young adults: rapid review. BJPsych Open 8, e97 (2022).
Fone, D. et al. Does social cohesion modify the association between area income deprivation and mental health? A multilevel analysis. Int. J. Epidemiol. 36, 338–345 (2007).
Birrell, L., Werner-Seidler, A., Davidson, L., Andrews, J. L. & Slade, T. Social connection as a key target for youth mental health. Ment. Health Prev. 37, 200395 (2025).
Iorfino, F. et al. Multidimensional outcomes in youth mental health care: what matters and why? Med. J. Aust. 211, S4–S11 (2019).
Iorfino, F. et al. Patterns of emergency department presentations for a youth mental health cohort: data-linkage cohort study. BJPsych Open 9, e170 (2023).
Jonsson, B. Ten arguments for a societal perspective in the economic evaluation of medical innovations. Eur. J. Health Econ. 10, 357–359 (2009).
Neumann, P. J., Sanders, G. D., Russell, L. B., Siegel, J. E. & Ganiats, T. G. Cost-Effectiveness in Health and Medicine 2nd edn (Oxford Univ. Press, 2017).
Duevel, J. A. et al. Considering the societal perspective in economic evaluations: a systematic review in the case of depression. Health Econ. Rev. 10, 32 (2020).
Husereau, D. et al. Consolidated Health Economic Evaluation Reporting Standards 2022 (CHEERS 2022) statement: updated reporting guidance for health economic evaluations. Int. J. Technol. Assess. Health Care 38, e13 (2022).
Occhipinti, J. A. et al. Which social, economic, and health sector strategies will deliver the greatest impacts for youth mental health and suicide prevention? protocol for an advanced, systems modelling approach. Front. Psychiatry 12, 759343 (2021).
Lawson, K. D. et al. A dynamic approach to economic priority setting to invest in youth mental health and guide local implementation: economic protocol for eight system dynamics policy models. Front. Psychiatry 13, 835201 (2022).
Freebairn, L. et al. Participatory methods for systems modeling of youth mental health: implementation protocol. JMIR Res. Protoc. 11, e32988 (2022).
Powell, M. The BOBYQA Algorithm for Bound Constrained Optimization Without Derivatives: Technical Report (Department of Applied Mathematics and Theoretical Physics, Univ. Cambridge, 2009).
Kessler, R. C. et al. Short screening scales to monitor population prevalences and trends in non-specific psychological distress. Psychol. Med. 32, 959–976 (2002).
Gamst-Klaussen, T., Lamu, A. N., Chen, G. & Olsen, J. A. Assessment of outcome measures for cost-utility analysis in depression: mapping depression scales onto the EQ-5D-5L. BJPsych Open 4, 160–166 (2018).
McCaffrey, N., Kaambwa, B., Currow, D. C. & Ratcliffe, J. Health-related quality of life measured using the EQ-5D-5L: South Australian population norms. Health Qual. Life Outcomes 14, 133 (2016).
Goodman, A. & Goodman, R. Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire as a dimensional measure of child mental health. J. Am. Acad. Child Adolesc. Psychiatry 48, 400–403 (2009).
Sharma, R., Gu, Y., Sinha, K., Aghdaee, M. & Parkinson, B. Mapping the Strengths and Difficulties questionnaire onto the child health utility 9D in a large study of children. Qual. Life Res. 28, 2429–2441 (2019).
O’Loughlin, R. et al. Comparing the psychometric performance of generic paediatric health-related quality of life instruments in children and adolescents with ADHD, anxiety and/or depression. Pharmacoeconomics 42, 57–77 (2024).
Jones, R. et al. Comparative psychometric performance of common generic paediatric health-related quality of life instrument descriptive systems: results from the Australian paediatric multi-instrument comparison study. Pharmacoeconomics 42, 39–55 (2024).
Oliveira Goncalves, A. S., Werdin, S., Kurth, T. & Panteli, D. Mapping studies to estimate health-state utilities from nonpreference-based outcome measures: a systematic review on how repeated measurements are taken into account. Value Health 26, 589–597 (2023).
Guidelines for Preparing a Submission to the Pharmaceutical Benefits Advisory Committee Version 5.0 (Pharmaceutical Benefits Advisory Committee, 2016).
Shiroiwa, T. et al. International survey on willingness-to-pay (WTP) for one additional QALY gained: what is the threshold of cost effectiveness? Health Econ. 19, 422–437 (2010).
Vallejo-Torres, L. et al. On the estimation of the cost-effectiveness threshold: why, what, how? Value Health 19, 558–566 (2016).
O’Donnell, J. Mapping Social Cohesion 2023 (Scanlon Foundation Research Institute, 2023).
Markus, A. & Arnup, J. Mapping Social Cohesion 2009—The Scan Foundation Surveys (Monash Univ., 2010).
Growing up in Australia—The Longitudinal Study of Australian Children—data and documentation. The Australian Institute of Family Studies https://growingupinaustralia.gov.au/data-and-documentation (2018).
Growing up in Australia: Longitudinal Study of Australian Children (LSAC) Release 9.1 C2 (Waves 1-9C) [ADA Dataverse]. The Australian Institute of Family Studies https://growingupinaustralia.gov.au/(2022).
Homelessness operational groups (OPGP). Australian Bureau of Statistics https://www.abs.gov.au/census/guide-census-data/census-dictionary/2021/variables-topic/housing/homelessness-operational-groups-opgp (2021).
Estimating homelessness: census. Australian Bureau of Statistics https://www.abs.gov.au/statistics/people/housing/estimating-homelessness-census (2021).
Labour force, Australia, detailed. Australian Bureau of Statistics https://www.abs.gov.au/statistics/labour/employment-and-unemployment/labour-force-australia-detailed/ (2023).
Labour force, Australia. Australian Bureau of Statistics https://www.abs.gov.au/statistics/labour/employment-and-unemployment/labour-force-australia/ (2023).
Education and work [Tablebuilder]. Australian Bureau of Statistics https://www.abs.gov.au/statistics/microdata-tablebuilder/tablebuilder (2014–2022).
Enrolments by Grade 2008 to 2021 (Australian Curriculum Assessment and Reporting Authority, 2021).
Education and Work, Australia (Reference Period: May 2021) (Australian Bureau of Statistics, 2021).
National study of mental health and wellbeing. Australian Bureau of Statistics https://www.abs.gov.au/statistics/health/mental-health/national-study-mental-health-and-wellbeing/2020-2022 (2022).
National Survey of Mental Health and Wellbeing: summary of results, 2007. Australian Bureau of Statistics https://www.abs.gov.au/statistics/health/mental-health/national-study-mental-health-and-wellbeing/2007 (2008).
Goodhue, R., Dakin, P. & Noble, K. What’s in the nest? Exploring Australia’s wellbeing framework for children and young people. Canberra ARACY https://ihcsupportagency.org.au/wp-content/uploads/2021/09/WhatsInTheNest2021_EVersion.pdf(2021).
Hogan, M., Hatfield-Dodds, L., Barnes, L. & Struthers, K. Systems Leadership for Child Wellbeing Project: Stage 1 Synthesis Report (Every Child and Australia and New Zealand School of Government (ANZSOG), Australia, 2021).
Veronese, N. et al. Interventions for reducing loneliness: an umbrella review of intervention studies. Health Social Care Commun. 29, e89–e96 (2021).
Li, N., Peng, J. & Li, Y. Effects and moderators of Triple P on the social, emotional, and behavioral problems of children: systematic review and meta-analysis. Front. Psychol. 12, 709851 (2021).
Sampaio, F. et al. Population cost-effectiveness of the Triple P parenting programme for the treatment of conduct disorder: an economic modelling study. Eur. Child Adolesc. Psychiatry 27, 933–944 (2018).
Crosland, P. et al. Cost-effectiveness of system-level mental health strategies for young people in the Australian Capital Territory: a dynamic simulation modelling study. Lancet Psychiatry 11, 123–133 (2024).
Loblay, V. et al. Enhancing equitable engagement for digital health promotion: Lessons from evaluating a childrearing app in Indonesia. Digit. Health 9, 20552076231222112 (2023).
LaMonica, H. M. et al. Developing a parenting app to support young children’s socioemotional and cognitive development in culturally diverse low- and middle-income countries: protocol for a co-design study. JMIR Res. Protoc. 11, e39225 (2022).
Walsh, E. H., McMahon, J. & Herring, M. P. Research review: the effect of school-based suicide prevention on suicidal ideation and suicide attempts and the role of intervention and contextual factors among adolescents: a meta-analysis and meta-regression. J. Child Psychol. Psychiatry 63, 836–845 (2022).
Walsh, E. H., Herring, M. P. & McMahon, J. A systematic review of school-based suicide prevention interventions for adolescents, and intervention and contextual factors in prevention. Prev. Sci. 24, 365–381 (2023).
Breet, E., Matooane, M., Tomlinson, M. & Bantjes, J. Systematic review and narrative synthesis of suicide prevention in high-schools and universities: a research agenda for evidence-based practice. BMC Public Health 21, 1116 (2021).
Dunning, D. et al. Do mindfulness-based programmes improve the cognitive skills, behaviour and mental health of children and adolescents? An updated meta-analysis of randomised controlled trials. Evid. Based Ment. Health 25, 135–142 (2022).
Caldwell, D. M. et al. School-based interventions to prevent anxiety and depression in children and young people: a systematic review and network meta-analysis. Lancet Psychiatry 6, 1011–1020 (2019).
Werner-Seidler, A. et al. School-based depression and anxiety prevention programs: an updated systematic review and meta-analysis. Clin. Psychol. Rev. 89, 102079 (2021).
Gunawardena, H., Voukelatos, A., Nair, S., Cross, S. & Hickie, I. B. Efficacy and effectiveness of universal school-based wellbeing interventions in australia: a systematic review. Int. J. Environ. Res. Public Health 20, 6508 (2023).
Schmidt, M. et al. Universal mental health interventions for children and adolescents: a systematic review of health economic evaluations. Appl. Health Econ. Health Policy 18, 155–175 (2020).
Foulkes, L. & Stringaris, A. Do no harm: can school mental health interventions cause iatrogenic harm? BJPsych Bull 47, 267–269 (2023).
Frederick, D. E. & VanderWeele, T. J. Supported employment: meta-analysis and review of randomized controlled trials of individual placement and support. PLoS ONE 14, e0212208 (2019).
Brinchmann, B. et al. A meta-regression of the impact of policy on the efficacy of individual placement and support. Acta Psychiatr. Scand. 141, 206–220 (2020).
Bond, G. R. Cost-Effectiveness of Individual Placement and Support (Advancing State Policy Integration for Recovery and Employment, 2023).
Zheng, K., Stern, B. Z., Wafford, Q. E. & Kohli-Lynch, C. N. Trial-based economic evaluations of supported employment for adults with severe mental illness: a systematic review. Adm. Policy Ment. Health 49, 440–452 (2022).
Thomson, R. M. et al. How do income changes impact on mental health and wellbeing for working-age adults? A systematic review and meta-analysis. Lancet Public Health 7, e515–e528 (2022).