I am a mental health nurse by trade and have gotten interested in the EA movement. I understand that donations are generally encouraged along the lines of physical health (Malaria and so on). Or towards alleviating serious poverty with GiveDirectly. However, I am motivated by an interest in mental health and want to give along these lines. I see it everyday at work therefore it really resonates with me as a serious challenge to building an equitable society. At the same time I want to be rational and make my donations effective.
I think answers will dismiss mental health charities are ineffective but providing mental healthcare is complex. And just because the question is complex doesn’t mean it should be brushed aside. I think a lifetime diagnosis of BPAD or Schizophrenia has the potential to cause more suffering in that person and others around them than malaria or HIV.
Has anyone looked into this? I would be interested to hear any thoughts.
You might be interested in Cause Area: Mental Health, a post which won second place in the December forum prize.
I think we are currently very uncertain about this, so there is a large value of information to be gained from supporting the evalution of interventions and charities in this space, like the Happier Lives Institute is doing. If you additionally believe they will do good research, supporting them is probably more impactful than supporting charities doing direct work currently.
(Disclaimer: I was involved in (only) the very early stages of setting up this institute)
When you believe current mental health charities are ineffective, you might also want to investigate supporting the founding of a new mental health charity (if you believe mental health charities can be more effective), though this is harder to do as a small donor. You could potentially support Charity Entrepreneurship if they decide to focus on mental health.
Founders’ pledge published a report into mental health interventions which concluded that strong minds was the best option.
You can download the report from https://founderspledge.com/research