Proactive Mental Health Support Can Support Global Economy

Summary

Podcast Summary: Proactive Mental Health Support Can Support Global Economy

Podcast: Bloomberg Businessweek
Date: July 16, 2026
Hosts: Carol Massar & Tim Stanovec
Guests:

• Sam Miley, Head of Forecasting and Thought Leadership, Centre for Economics and Business Research
• Andrea Christie David, Director of Mental Health, Bupa

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Overview

This episode dives into the vital link between proactive mental health support and economic productivity, focusing on a new study that quantifies the economic losses caused by major life events affecting mental well-being in the workplace. The hosts are joined by Sam Miley (Centre for Economics and Business Research) and Andrea Christie David (Bupa) to explore the benefits of shifting from reactive to proactive mental health strategies in businesses and policies around the globe.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

The Cost of Poor Workplace Mental Health

• $42 billion per year could be saved globally with proactive mental health measures.
  • How was this calculated? The study by CEBR, commissioned by Bupa, examined the impact of major life events (e.g. divorce, bereavement, becoming a parent/carer) on employee productivity.
• 1.7 billion workdays lost annually worldwide due to mental health issues.
• $636 billion in lost productivity attributed to unaddressed mental health needs related to major life events.
  • Quote: “Globally, 1.7 billion days of work are lost each year. Wow. Because of this. That’s staggering.” (Andrea Christie David, 06:54)
• Although less than 1% of the global GDP (~$126 trillion), the impact is significant and often underestimated.
  • “I do think it is less than 1%.” (Carol Massar, 09:52)

Why a Proactive Approach Matters

• Proactive measures—including normalizing mental health conversations, accessible clinics, and supportive workplace cultures—not only help individuals, but also preserve productivity at scale.
  • “The research found that those who were proactive were able to return to work faster, suffered less of a productivity impact.” (Sam Miley, 07:53)
• COVID-19 heightened awareness and openness to discussing mental health.
  • “Covid really opened up this conversation.” (Tim Stanovec, 04:56)
• Making support visible and normal decreases stigma and increases early engagement.
  • "Normalizing it. Right. We are all going to experience challenges with our mental health … it's okay to talk about it." (Andrea Christie David, 05:12)
  • Clinics such as Bupa’s Mind Place are helping people who have never previously accessed support—50% are new to mental health services. (05:39)

How the Research Was Done

• Surveyed over 13,000 workers across major markets.
• Assessed the frequency of major life events and the depth of their impact at work.
  • 10–15% of the workforce experiences these events each year.
• Questions included emotional toll, absenteeism, presenteeism (working while impaired), and duration of impact.
  • “We then asked about what the impact channels were. We asked about emotional aspects, but then we also drilled down into the workplace, too.” (Sam Miley, 08:37)

Structural Barriers and Policy Differences

• Access costs remain a common barrier, even in countries with partial public health coverage.
  • “We have found even things like the cost of access to mental health is a barrier because of cost of living.” (Andrea Christie David, 10:20)
• Australia’s hybrid funding model empowers patient choice and increases access compared to some European systems where funding is provider-controlled.
  • “... the patient can choose their provider … it’s been a really interesting learning and I’ve been sharing that with our European and UK colleagues.” (Andrea Christie David, 11:24)
• The role of government and policy: Australia's government works closely with health organizations like Bupa to shape mental health services.
  • “We can get quite close to government here being such a strong brand like Bupa. And we have regular conversations with them... and they really listen.” (Andrea Christie David, 12:28)

Shifting Attitudes Among Leaders

• Heightened sensitivity to mental health as an economic and workforce issue, especially post-pandemic.
  • “I think this has increased markedly since the COVID 19 pandemic … It’s put mental health at the forefront of this conversation and I think that will only increase with time.” (Sam Miley, 13:07)

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Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• “It means normalizing it. Right. We are all going to experience challenges with our mental health ... And it’s okay to talk about it.”
  — Andrea Christie David [05:12]

• “Globally, 1.7 billion days of work are lost each year. Wow. Because of this. That’s staggering.”
  — Andrea Christie David [06:28]

• "Encouraging that productivity, being an open workplace is not just beneficial for the individual, but also for the organization and indeed at scale for the economy as a whole."
  — Sam Miley [07:53]

• “Covid really opened up this conversation.”
  — Tim Stanovec [04:56]

• “...the patient can choose their provider … and that’s been a really interesting learning.”
  — Andrea Christie David [11:24]

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Important Timestamps

• 02:06 – Episode intro; the link between climate, health & sleep
• 02:41 – Discussion shifts to mental health, life events & productivity
• 03:30 – Sam Miley explains the $42 billion/year figure
• 05:12 – Andrea Christie David on normalization & proactive care
• 06:28 – The quantifiable human and economic impact
• 07:53 – Key takeaway: being proactive benefits individuals and economies
• 08:37 – How the workforce study was conducted
• 10:20 – Barriers like cost of access and innovative models in Australia
• 11:24 – Comparison of funding models, global policy implications
• 13:07 – Sam Miley on increased leader awareness post-COVID

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Conclusion

This episode centers around the urgent need for global business and policy leaders to prioritize proactive mental health strategies. The research highlighted not just the staggering human cost but an enormous (and underappreciated) economic burden. Normalization, accessibility, and progressive policy are vital, with COVID-19 having served as a tipping point for serious, open conversations in both boardrooms and governments worldwide.

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Transcript

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[Carol Massar]

You're listening to Bloomberg Business Week with Carol Massar and Tim Stanovec on Bloomberg Radio. Carol got this on our radar this morning on our editorial call Climate change contributing to higher nighttime temperatures that are causing people to lose an average of almost 56 hours of sleep a year and threatening health. This is according to a new study.

[Tim Stanovec]

I definitely hear from people. It's just it's so hot. I can't sleep. I'm not, you know, sleeping well and you know, Tim and I.

[Carol Massar]

It doesn't help to have the electric company say, put your thermostat at 78 degrees.

[Tim Stanovec]

That's why you sleep with an ice pack or something. But no, but you and I talk about every time we go to a doctor, it's like, how are you sleeping? Are you getting sleep? How important it is to health?

[Carol Massar]

Well, it's not just warm attempts that can keep us up at night, major life events. I mean, losing a loved one, coming back to work after becoming a parent, going through a divorce, those things can have significant impacts when it comes to mental health and, of course, productivity. And as well, we've got Sam Miley with us, head of forecasting and thought leadership at the center for Economics and Business Research. Also Andrea Christie, David, director of mental health at the international private health care company bupa. Sam joins us from Madrid. Andrea is in Sydney. Sam, I want to start with you because you're, you're, you and the folks at the center for Economic and Economics and Business Research were behind this study. And $42 billion a year is the number that is lost in or at least could be saved if we figure out how to handle this proactively. How did you, how did you do this study and come to that conclusion?

[Sam Miley]

So the team at BUPA were particularly interested in understanding how people respond to certain big life moments and in the context of the workplace. So say if you're going through a divorce, if you're becoming a parent or a carer, how does that then translate into the workplace? Are you taking more time off? Are you still going to work but performing at less than your typical capacity? These are the types of channels we were looking at. And ultimately we're looking to quantify.

[Tim Stanovec]

It's significant. And listen, I hate to put things in dollars, but it's Certainly what gets CEOs attention, Sam, it's what gets economies, leaders of countries, their attention. I mean, there was an impact. I feel like we've talked about this. Why was it important to do this particular study? What new light was shed for you?

[Sam Miley]

Well, it ultimately puts a quite tangible cost to the impact of poor mental wellbeing. And in that sense, it's the most digestible way to understand what is quite a human and emotional phenomenon.

[Carol Massar]

I think what's most interesting to me about this is the proactive approach because and talking about mental health at work is, is nothing new. And workplaces, I think, at least in many parts of the United States and in bigger companies that have the resources are certainly seem like they're starting to take this seriously.

[Tim Stanovec]

And I would say Covid really opened up this conversation.

[Carol Massar]

Absolutely. Andrea, come on in here because I'm curious about a proactive approach to mental health. Instead of a reactive approach. What does that mean?

[Andrea Christie David]

It means normalizing it. Right. We are all going to experience challenges with our mental health from time to time and it's okay to talk about it. It means being aware that we're going to have these bumps in the road and identifying what tools you might use that might be talking to friends, increasing exercise, looking at, chatting to your gp, even as the first port of call. But at bupa, because we are setting up these mind place clinics across the globe, we really want to be part of that preventative conversation. And in Australia so far, we' finding that 50% of our patients that are coming through have never accessed mental health support before. So it's showing that even by putting these types of sites on, foot, traffic available to the public means it's more accessible and it's easier for people to feel like there is a place to go when they're even starting to feel some of these challenges.

[Tim Stanovec]

Andrea, there's, you know, making sure that there are places for people to go or to talk to, certainly one aspect, but I also think we still, as a society, corporate society, personal society, the support of having it, whether it's family, friends, those you work with, that is also an important component to this.

[Andrea Christie David]

Absolutely, absolutely. And that's what I mean about normalizing it. We're all going to go through it at some stage. Even these examples that we looked at, losing a loved one, getting married, having a baby or losing a baby, even, we know how challenging those are because we've all been touched by it at some point. So it's okay, whether you're the CEO, whether you're an aged care worker, to actually feel like we can talk about it at work. We can take the time that we need and we feel like our employer is going to support us. I mean, the research showed that globally, 1.7 billion days of work are lost each year. Wow. Because of this. That's staggering. So imagine if we were more proactive and we normalized it and we said, okay, you've got this live event coming up and you talked to your staff about it and you prepared them and you gave them access to these types of services just to ensure they have a smooth transition in and out of these major life events.

[Carol Massar]

Yeah. Set. 1.7 billion working days, $636 billion in lost productivity. Sam, come on back in here. Because of the center for Economics and Business Research, this is, this is what you study. It's not easy to, to sort of implement change such as this across an organization, but based on the research that you've done, what would you say are the things that workplaces need to prioritize in order to. I mean, look, it's easy to make the economic argument here, but it's not easy to necessarily make the change in a workplace to figure this out.

[Sam Miley]

I think the key conclusion there goes back to the point on being proactive. The research found that those who were proactive were able to return to work faster, suffered less of a productivity impact. So the main takeaway for business is that encouraging that productivity, being an open workplace is not just beneficial for the individual, but also for the organization and indeed at scale for the economy as a whole.

[Tim Stanovec]

One of the things, you know, Sam, I'd love for you to just talk a little bit about how you guys did this survey and how it worked out and how you actually went about kind of grabbing the data or finding the data. Did you sit down with individuals? Was it companies? Like, tell me a little bit about the process. I'm curious about it.

[Sam Miley]

Absolutely. So the survey was fielded to over 13,000 workers across several major markets. And we first of all asked these workers about the rate at which they experience these life events. And we find that of the life events considered in the study, around 10 to 15% of the population will experience any one of them in a given year. So it's quite a large share of people are going through this at any given time and then amongst those who've had recent experience of those events. So divorce, marriage, bereavement. We then asked about what the impact channels were. We asked about emotional aspects, but then we also drilled down into the workplace, too. Whether they took time off, how long that was, whether they stayed in the workplace but underperformed and how long they felt they underperformed for.

[Tim Stanovec]

Interesting. I want to ask you guys both something, though, and forgive me, and maybe it's just because we're into numbers here. So the global economy is, if you measure it through GDP, is about $126 trillion. So we're talking about $636 billion in lost productivity. I haven't done the percentage, but just a little perspective there. I'm not saying it's not important, but

[Carol Massar]

I do think it is less than 1%.

[Tim Stanovec]

It is less than 1%. So I think, you know, how do we think. Think about that against other stress points? I feel like financial, like, we talk so much about, you know, the cost of housing, the cost of food. I don't know. Come on back in, Andrea. Because, you know, when you think about helping people, there's a lot that are coming at individuals.

[Andrea Christie David]

Absolutely. So we have found even things like the cost of access to mental health is a barrier because of cost of living. You know, we're looking at interest rate impact on how many people might come to our service. So we're looking at interesting ways to break down that barrier through low cost models. And fortunately in Australia we have Medicare, which covers part of your access to mental health treatment. So how do we waive the out of pocket fee, for example? So we know that those types of stresses increase things like family breakdowns, defaulting on mortgages, and therefore may cause major life events.

[Carol Massar]

I'm glad you brought up the, the policy differences in different countries. And I'm wondering, Andrea, if there, if there is a way that, that you think governments and it's sort of anathema to talk about here in the United States in this political environment, but if there's something that policymakers, you think could do on a large scale to address this.

[Andrea Christie David]

In Australia, we are really fortunate. We place a lot of focus on mental health. Our government has invested in public mental health services. As I said, they fund some of these services that our clinics deliver. And because this is a global project, and I've been fortunate to work with our European and UK colleagues on this, what I've identified is that in Australia our funding is carried by the patient, whereas in a lot of those other countries the funding sits within with a contract that the provider must hold. And what that's meant for us in Australia is that the patient can choose their provider. They can choose whether to go to a not for profit or a private service like ours. They can choose whether to use all of their funding with us or part of it. So it's been a really interesting learning and I've been sharing that with our European and UK colleagues in terms of some of that public policy advocacy. We're really lucky that we can get quite close to government here being such a strong brand like bupa. And we have regular conversations with them about what we're doing in these spaces across all of our health services. And they really listen. I was meeting with a chief of staff just last week who was fascinated by what we were doing and they thought, well, if BUPA is investing in these types of services, how can we leverage what you're doing to support better social need and impact?

[Tim Stanovec]

Which is great to hear. Hey, Sam, just saved about 30, 40 seconds here. You attend briefings at the bank of England after monetary policy decisions. You've been consulted on the economy by a number of government departments. You are head of Forecasting and Thought leadership leaders. Are they sensitive to sensitive to this? Are they increasingly looking at factors like this that impact the economy, but impact really the well being of their people just quickly?

[Sam Miley]

Absolutely. And to return to a point made at the top of the session, I think this has increased markedly since the COVID 19 pandemic and the way that that completely uprooted traditional working practices. It's put mental health at the forefront of this conversation and I think that will only increase with time.

[Tim Stanovec]

Really interesting. We appreciate you both, Sam Miley, head of forecasting and thought leadership at the center for Economics and Business Research, and Andrea Christie David, Director of Mental Health at the international private health care company bupa, joining us there.

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