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Highlights
Depression will effect 8.4% 0f your orgnization’s workforce this year. How open would you be to reducing this level of mental illness in your organization and enjoying the cost savings and other benefits that could come about as a direct result?
- What level of financial loss, due to mental illness, is acceptable to your organization?
- 8.4% of full time employees in the six sample countries used in these projections are suffering from depression. This works out to 15,694,123 employees who are performing sub optimally due to absenteeism or presenteeism
- This represents a total of 958,910,915 days of lost production per year at a cost of $173.66 billion
- Approximately 45% of depressed employees will seek medical help over the course of a year. At a median Treatment Cost per employee of $10,836.00, this will result in total treatment costs of approximately $76.53 billion
- The result of this is that the employers in our six sample countries will suffer a loss of approximately $250.2 billion per year as a direct result of depression alone!
- If the CognImmune program could reduce the incidence of depression by 10%, or 1,569,412 employees, this could reduce the costs for depression borne by employers in our six sample countries by approximately $25 billion
- If the CognImmune program could reduce the incidence of depression by 25%, or 3,923,530 employees, this could reduce the costs for depression borne by employers in our six sample countries by approximately $62.5 billion
How it may be possible to achieve these results is outlined in detail in the following.
The Process
Some of what you are about to read is, quite frankly, remarkable. But let me start with how I got here. When I embarked on this exercise I had no preconceived notions. I simply decided to look at numbers, based on the best available data, and see what they yielded.
Then I did it again because I couldn’t believe that the numbers I came up with initially were accurate. Turns out they were. And that was what was truly scary.
Before we get to those numbers let me explain what they are based on. The initial proposed deployment for the Cognimmune Program is a select group of predominantly English speaking countries.
The countries chosen were:
- Australia
- Canada
- Ireland
- New Zealand
- The United States of America
- The United Kingdom
| The combined population of these six countries is | 459,874,892 |
| The combined total number of people employed full time in these six countries is | 186,834,800 |
| The percentage of people employed full time in these six countries is | 40.6% |
| The average annual salary of these full time employees is | $48,096 |
| The average daily salary of these full time employees is | $181.10 |
- The average salary of full time employees in these six countries yields a combined total payroll of approximately $8.99 trillion dollars excluding benefits, pension contributions, payroll taxes, etc.
- According to The National Institute of Mental Health, in 2017, the rate of depression alone in American adults employed full time was 8.4%
- If 8.4% of full time employees in the six listed countries are suffering from depression this works out to 15,694,123 employees who are performing sub optimally due to absenteeism or presenteeism. The combination of these two factors is referred to as Lost Production Time or LPT
An average depressed employee will be absent 31.4 days per year and lose another 29.7 days of productivity while at work due to presenteeism- This would yield a total of 958,910,915 days of lost production per year at a cost of $173.66 billion (958,910,915 days of lost production * average daily salary of $181.10)
- Approximately 45% of employees will seek medical help over the course of a year. The median Treatment Cost per employee is estimated to be $10,836.00. This will result in total treatment costs of approximately $76.53 billion. While undergoing treatment these employees will still be subject to LPT costs.
- This will result in a total cost to employers of approximately $250.2 billion per year as a direct result of depression alone!
- And as significant as this number is, it only takes into account about 40% of the population in our sample countries. There are also large groups of children, adolescents, youth, seniors and others who are not part of the full time work force.
- Finally the total population of these six countries is 459,874,892 which is only about 6% of the total worldwide population of 7.7 billion people. So as substantial as the numbers presented earlier appear, they represent but a small portion of the actual costs if we take into account the world population.
But let’s get back to the matter at hand. Our six sample countries lose about $250.2 billion dollars per year as a result of the direct treatment costs and indirect LPT costs associated with just depression.
Not reflected in these numbers are costs such as workplace disruption caused when other employees have to take on more responsibility to compensate for their ill peers, the cost of training and retraining replacement staff, staff turnover, recruitment costs to replace departed staff and increased workplace stress to name but a few.
What Are The Cost Benefits?
Now suppose there were a way to recover a portion of these costs? Would that be of interest to you as an employer? And, even better, suppose there was a way to prevent depression in the first place? Would that be of interest to you as an employee?
And this is where Cognimmune comes in. Previously we have explained what Cognimmune is. How it was developed. How it works. And, ultimately, how it is intended to address mental illness in a proactive rather than reactive manner. (If you have not read this explanation you can find it here.) But when you look at the potential cost savings and other benefits of the Cognimmune Program, that’s when things get very interesting indeed.
Let’s assume a projected cost per employee of $100 for the basic Cognimmune Program (This is just an arbitrary number for the time being. The actual cost could be higher and it could be lower.). This is the equivalent of about 55% of the LPT loss for one day
Let’s further assume that every full time employee in the six sample countries is enrolled in the basic Cognimmune Program. The total cost would be (186,838,800 full time employees * $100 per employee) $18.68 billion. Sounds like a lot but just wait.
If the result of this is that the rate of employee depression in the six sample countries (15,694,123) is reduced by 10% or 1,569,412 employees, employers would see a reduction in associated costs of approximately $25 billion.
This represents a Return On Investment of $6.32 billion (savings of $25 billion coming from an initial investment of $18.16 billion)
But if this approach yields an employee depression reduction rate of 25% (3,923,530 employees) this cost reduction exceeds $62.5 billion.
Now the Return On Investment rises to $44.34 billion (savings of $62.5 billion coming from an initial investment of $18.16 billion)
A 10% success rate seems realistic. And a 25% success rate is not unreasonable. In either case – or others for that matter – the net result is a savings of billions of dollars to the economy of the six sample countries.
I told you that these numbers were going to be shocking. What other programs can you name that stand to yield savings of between $6 billion and $44 billion – or even more – to the economy of specific countries?
And let’s not overlook the human factor here. If the Cognimmune program is successful in preventing 10% of the employed people described in our sample group from succumbing to Major Depressive Disorder, this means that 1,569,412 who might have experienced MDD would have been spared that suffering. And if the success rate rises to 25% that number rises to 3,923,530. And these are numbers that it is impossible to attach a dollar figure to.
But let’s look even further beyond the financial savings that the Cognimmune program could provide. In addition to those listed above there are intangibles such as general improvements in the workplace environment, elevated levels of productivity, stronger family connections, reductions in substance abuse and a better quality of life that has the potential to impact on everyone, everywhere.
What’s The First Step
As fantastic as it would be to have the kind of immediate impact presented above, realistically this program has to start somewhere and scale up as quickly as demand grows. Because the program is designed to be delivered online via the internet scaling the program will be a relatively simple process.
As more capacity is required more internet web server resources can be brought online. By incorporating the program with a cloud based infrastructure such as AWS this deployment can be implemented in a timely manner, as needed, without the need for huge capital outlays.
As a business manager would you spend $20,000,000 if you could receive a $6,781,972 – or about 34% – return on your investment in the first year? What if the same investment generated a $45,954,931 return or approximately 229%. And what if it could be even higher? Would that be of interest to you?
(For customized cost projections, specific to your organization, use our free Depression Cost Calculator)
Now let’s suppose that, for no additional investment, your annual savings would increase in year 2 and each subsequent year to $26,781,972 or $46,954,931 or even more? Am I getting your attention?
If the Cognimmune Program is placed with 200,000 full time employees within the six sample countries (0.107% of full time employees) this would yield total year one sales of $20,000,000. Not an unrealistic goal.
This is broken down in the financial projections below.
| Number of Employees | 200,000 | 20,000 | 2,000 | 200 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Program Costs (based on $100 per employee) | $20,000,000 | $2,000,000 | $200,000 | $20,000 |
| Potential number of depressed employees (8.4% of Number of Employees) | 16,800 | 1,680 | 168 | 17 |
| LPT Costs for depressed employees (61.1 days X average daily salary of $181.10) | $185,899,565 | $18,589,957 | $1,858,966 | $185,900 |
| Treatment costs for depressed employees (45% of depressed full time employees at an average median treatment cost of $10,836 LPT costs listed above will still apply during treatment) | $81,920,160 | $8,192,016 | $819,202 | $81,920 |
| Total annual loss | $267,819,725 | $26,781,972 | $2,678,197 | $267,820 |
| Potential Loss Reductions to employers if 10% of employees could prevent the onset of depression by using Cognimmune programs | $26,781,972 | $2,678,197 | $267,820 | $26,782 |
| Potential Loss Reductions to employers if 25% of employees could prevent the onset of depression by using Cognimmune programs | $66,954,931 | $6,695,493 | $699,549 | $66,954 |
| ROI to employers in year 1 if 10% of employees could prevent the onset of depression by using Cognimmune programs based on initial investment of $100 per employee | $6,781,972 | $678,197 | $67,819 | $6,782 |
| ROI to employers in year 1 if 25% of employees could prevent the onset of depression by using Cognimmune programs based on initial investment of $100 per employee | $46,954,931 | $4,695,493 | $469,549 | $46,955 |
| ROI to employers in year 2 if 10% of employees could prevent the onset of depression by using Cognimmune programs based on initial investment of $100 per employee in year 1 | $26,781,972 | $2,678,197 | $267,820 | $26,782 |
| ROI to employers in year 2 if 25% of employees could prevent the onset of depression by using Cognimmune programs based on initial investment of $100 per employee in year 1 | $66,954,931 | $6,695,493 | $669,549 | $66,955 |