Really cool work. It’s striking how much higher mental health is in importance and support than GHD. Do you have any insight into why this is and what people are imagining when they’re referring to mental health?
I interpret this as very weak evidence that there’s an audience for global mental health / mental health related EG that is non-overlapping with GHD (that is, there are MH givers that wouldn’t otherwise give to GHD). But of course 1. most philanthropy is domestically oriented, and presumably that’s what people mostly have in mind here as well. 2. It’s in my self interest to read the data this way, so wondering what y’all think.
Do you know how hard it’d be to tease our real answers to these questions if you couldn’t answer them with current data? E.g., by adding questions to the next round of the pulse data.
Hi Joel—in this case the positive sentiment towards mental health is indeed probably driven quite a bit by domestic mental health concerns. We actually provide an example or two for each cause and the mental health one notes improving or increasing access to mental health in the U.S.. Given it is the only mental health thing we have done so far in Pulse I think it would be hard to tease out with current data as you suggest.
But yes there could be opportunities to add something in upcoming rounds—feel free to DM or reach out by email to discuss more exactly what you would be looking for insights into. At face value it would probably be quite easy to compare how much people support e.g., mental health access/improvements at home, vs. as something they would support being done in lower income countries.
I can imagine support for government or charitable efforts at improving mental health in lower income settings being similar to support for general efforts to improve welfare/health in lower income settings, but it also seems possible that the current vogue for mental health (with therapy apps, ads all over etc. about its importance) could make people think it is an especially valuable way of helping abroad. That might just be cannibalizing broader GHD support even then though.
Hi Jamie and David,
Really cool work. It’s striking how much higher mental health is in importance and support than GHD. Do you have any insight into why this is and what people are imagining when they’re referring to mental health?
I interpret this as very weak evidence that there’s an audience for global mental health / mental health related EG that is non-overlapping with GHD (that is, there are MH givers that wouldn’t otherwise give to GHD). But of course 1. most philanthropy is domestically oriented, and presumably that’s what people mostly have in mind here as well. 2. It’s in my self interest to read the data this way, so wondering what y’all think.
Do you know how hard it’d be to tease our real answers to these questions if you couldn’t answer them with current data? E.g., by adding questions to the next round of the pulse data.
Hi Joel—in this case the positive sentiment towards mental health is indeed probably driven quite a bit by domestic mental health concerns. We actually provide an example or two for each cause and the mental health one notes improving or increasing access to mental health in the U.S.. Given it is the only mental health thing we have done so far in Pulse I think it would be hard to tease out with current data as you suggest.
But yes there could be opportunities to add something in upcoming rounds—feel free to DM or reach out by email to discuss more exactly what you would be looking for insights into. At face value it would probably be quite easy to compare how much people support e.g., mental health access/improvements at home, vs. as something they would support being done in lower income countries.
I can imagine support for government or charitable efforts at improving mental health in lower income settings being similar to support for general efforts to improve welfare/health in lower income settings, but it also seems possible that the current vogue for mental health (with therapy apps, ads all over etc. about its importance) could make people think it is an especially valuable way of helping abroad. That might just be cannibalizing broader GHD support even then though.