The youth mental health crisis is a global issue that we cannot ignore anymore.
The economic pressures of a highly unequal world, combined with the lack of regulations around social media usage and the increasingly insecure employment markets, are making young people more vulnerable to a dangerous surge in mental health, according to a landmark report published by The Lancet Psychiatry Commission in 2024.
The research was led by a psychiatrist from Orygen Centre of Excellence in Youth Mental Health in Australia, who told The Guardian, “This is the most serious public health problem we’ve got.”
The World Health Organization has also claimed that lost productivity associated with mental health issues, such as anxiety and depression, is costing the global economy around US$1 trillion a year.
Despite these alarming statistics and many more reports that have been released in recent years about the severity of the mental health crisis humanity faces today, I was astonished to find out that there is at least a US$200 billion funding gap in philanthropic activities that specifically target mental health.
Improving mental health through philanthropy
A report by Prospira Global shows that only one percent of private philanthropic activities are dedicated to improving mental health globally, and these include the contributions from foundations and philanthropic platforms represented by high-profile individuals, such as Mackenzie Scott and Selena Gomez, as well as corporations such as the LEGO Foundation, the Wellcome Foundation and a number of pharmaceutical companies.
One of the main reasons for this funding gap in philanthropy is the fact that mental health as a focus area for funding is not a subject that is well understood by many in the philanthropic communities around the world.
There is no one-size-fits-all approach to tackling the mental health crisis, which means that potential solutions remain either underfunded or undiscovered.
This is also partly due to the often invisible symptoms poor mental health is associated with, and the fact that poor mental health exists on a complex continuum that is experienced differently from person to person.
There is no one-size-fits-all approach to tackling the mental health crisis, which means that potential solutions remain either underfunded or undiscovered.
The dangers of academic pressure
The mental health funding gap might be large, but I am confident that more can be done with a more collective effort from the global community of philanthropists.
I can share my own personal experience and encounter with the mental health crisis through my own philanthropic work. After more than 30 years of dedicating myself to educational philanthropy through William S.D. Louey Educational Foundation, I discovered a link between academic pressures and adolescent mental health problems.
Now, being a Hong Kong-born businessman and philanthropist, I realized that poor mental health that has a correlation with extremely high academic expectations is quite a widespread issue, especially in many Asian countries.
This is often a cultural issue, as in Hong Kong itself, children as young as six are exposed to a high-stress education system that includes hours of homework. This intense pressure continues throughout their academic journey and leads many young people struggling to secure employment even after graduating with quality degrees.
I realized that poor mental health that has a correlation with extremely high academic expectations is quite a widespread issue, especially in many Asian countries.
As an extension of my educational philanthropy, I am now also focusing on supporting the youth in Hong Kong who are at risk of developing poor mental health as a direct result of high academic pressures. This is why the William S.D. Louey Educational Foundation has recently partnered with Suicide Prevention Services (SPS) to launch a mental health campaign that tackles the most pressing mental health challenges faced by young men aged 15–25 in Hong Kong.
I made this partnership with SPS also because suicide claims nearly 1,000 lives annually in my home country, with the number of students considering taking their own lives increasing by 50 percent since the 2018–19 academic year.
This effort also ties in with my own philosophy that charity often begins at home. After three decades of sending the most outstanding students in China and Hong Kong to pursue overseas education in the United Kingdom, I realized that I needed to look more closely into the educational landscape of Hong Kong itself, affecting the majority of students and young adults.
I examined the crisis that is affecting those in my home country, and with this collaboration, I am hoping to inspire others in Hong Kong to look into this issue on a deeper level, too. And I always believe in creating a ripple effect with my philanthropic efforts, which means that this urgent social challenge will also be examined beyond Hong Kong and Asia as a whole.
Taking action for our collective future
I urge more philanthropists to examine the many different ways they can tackle the mental health crisis, whether it be on a local level or on an international level. The global mental health funding gap can be closed, and one article by Philanthropy Roundtable shows that now is the time for philanthropic funding to increase in targeting the area of mental health worldwide.
Improving global mental health will have positive effects that will essentially create a healthier, happier society.
From funding immediate clinical and therapeutic solutions to mental health, philanthropists can also look into more holistic and preventative measures that exist or are being developed to promote better mental health in society.
Not taking action is more damaging to our collective future.
In one sense, it is true that mental health development has no cookie-cutter solutions, but in another sense, this means that there is a diversity of ways philanthropists can get involved, both in small and big ways.
Not taking action is more damaging to our collective future. An American social psychologist and author, Jonathan Haidt, has examined how better mental health and wellbeing impacts societal flourishing. He told Philanthropy Roundtable in an interview that within the context of the future of the United States, inaction will be “the destruction of America’s human capital”.
“Without a creative, vibrant, mentally stable workforce, America’s global economic competitive advantage is in peril,” he added.
This statement is applicable to the rest of the world, too. For the sake of our collective future, the subject of mental health funding should be discussed very urgently.
