Camilla Nystrand

I am a PhD student and a health economist in the research group CHAP. My interests include, from a health economic perspective, making cost-effectiveness and cost-benefit analyses for social investments concerning children and adolescents. With a background as an economist, I think that early interventions for the future generation are a sustainable solution for both the individual well-being as well as for various societal sectors and its allocation of resources.

As the interest for social investments in municipalities is growing and the need to prevent mental illness is becoming more important, difficulties often arise within decision-making when evidence for interventions and its effect on all societal sectors is not available. Even if interventions are available for implementation in municipalities, the investment is often short-sighted and future effects and savings often not accounted for, which can lead to less resources invested that we know can benefit several sectors or the investing sector in the long term.

Therefore, I work on a project that aims to create a decision-making tool regarding early interventions for children and adolescents to prevent and reduce mental illness. Through cost-offset analyses by estimating the relationship between mental illness and later adult social and economic difficulties, we can estimate the potential societal savings from early investments.