Is Mental Illness Increasing in Australia? Here’s How We Can Address Mental Health Issues
Is Mental Illness Increasing in Australia? - YouTube
First of all, what is mental illness?
Mental issues interfere with a person’s cognitive, emotional or social abilities and include anxiety disorders, affective disorders, psychotic disorders and substance use disorders.
So despite there being a criteria for each, you don’t need to suffer immensely to be included in the data I’ll cover in a moment.
These are increasingly prevalent among every age group and the issue is global.
In Australia specifically, data by ABS in 2021 concluded that over two in five Australians aged 16-85 years (43.7% or 8.6 million people) had experienced a mental disorder at some time in their life
In the US, various surveys have shown that anxiety and depression and substance abuse are skyrocketing.
Moreover, physical wellbeing has dropped significantly since the beginning of COVID-19 and health disparities between the white and black/hispanic population are increasing exponentially.
I’ll explore the effects COVID-19 has had on mental illness later.
By observing the data for different age groups, youth are faring the worst, and anxiety has never been so high among students.
This includes people aged between 15 and 25 years respectively.
My focus today will be on the rise of mental illness in youth, and in Australian students specifically.
Let’s proceed.
Is mental illness becoming more common?
Yes.
The percentage of the population who say they’ve experienced symptoms of anxiety in the past 12 months or have been diagnosed with a mental health disorder - is increasing.
Here’s the trend:
According to the National Health Survey between 2020-21, 1 in 5 Australians or 20% reported a mental health condition or behavioural condition.
This percentage of people was actually the same in 2017-18.
However, this is still an increase from 18% in the years 2014-15.
Finally, The Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission saw 18% of Australians suffer with mental illness and 27% of youth (likely 15 or 16-24 years) in the year 1993.
Prevalence for youth has slightly increased since.
It’s gradual, but an upward trend nevertheless.
However, mental health is a nuanced topic to discuss because of things like de-stigmatisation, increased self-expression and the debatable impact of COVID-19.
Because it seems that the pandemic only caused acute anxiety and depression, which we’ll explore soon…
As for the youth, they are the group most at risk of developing a mental illness now.
A report from Mission Australia and Black Dog reveals that there has been an increase in the proportion of Australian young people who meet the criteria for a probable serious mental illness, rising from 18.7% in 2012 to 22.8% in 2016.
Are youth more susceptible to mental illness?
If we consider different age groups in the period 2020-21, those aged 15-24 years in Australia have the highest proportion of mental or behavioural conditions - 28%.
So the answer’s clearly yes as this statistic is higher than the 20% reported by the entire population.
So, what’s my philosophy?
I think that we can use mental adversity to inspire each other.
When looking at this review on ways to address mental illness, one of the most effective methods proved to be recovery camps. Camps in outback Australia where people who’d experienced mental illness got to share their stories and their own ways to recovery.
That’s my major goal.
I’ve had my own prolonged childhood experiences with anxiety and obsessive thinking and I’ve honestly come a long way.
But it’s no accident.
There’s lots I’ve had to learn and PLENTY of change I’ve had to make to both my mindset and my practical lifestyle.
I’m constantly studying things that I believe will help me maximise my potential and I intend to continue passing it onto others via the internet.
To people who also want something more.
I often allude to things I’ve done to channel mental issues I’ve had into drive and passion.
If that sounds interesting to you - join the email community.
Has there really been a measurable increase in mental illness?
Perhaps not, let’s explore why…
People may actually just be coming FORWARD more now than in the past.
Some surveys suggest that social stigma towards mental health is slowly reducing in Australia.
But honestly, there are a limited number of studies conducted here regarding stigma prevalence.
So here’s three conclusions based on 2017-2019 surveys in the US which are likely relevant in Australia too.
More people feel comfortable talking with someone about their mental illness (66% to 71%)
More people say they would tell friends if they had a mental illness (34% to 41%)
Fewer people say they would be reluctant to seek help (50% to 46%)
Regardless, stigma against people living with mental illness is still prevalent in Australia, with almost three out of four people with mental illness experiencing stigma.
Moreover, a study by the Mental Health Council of Australia (MHCA), found that 85% of Australians with a mental illness surveyed felt as if others would view them unfavourably because of their mental illness.
Another 83% of these participants had seen offensive reports about mental illness in the media.
This is especially applicable to more serious conditions such as schizophrenia.
The same study found 71% of people with a mental illness were treated as less competent after revealing their mental illness to others.
What can be done to further decrease stigma in mental health?
Firstly, here’s a few things we’re doing to reduce stigma in Australia:
The Mindframe Education and Training program funded by the Australian Government, National Suicide Prevention Program. This program provides consistently-updated, evidence-based information to ensure that suicide and mental illness is accurately reported, appropriately portrayed and communicated correctly.
Sectors such as universities, news media outlets, television and the police are directly collaborating with the Australian government through this program.
The Media Monitoring Project conducted by the University of Melbourne and the University of Canberra in both 2000 and 2006 saw substantial improvements in appropriate recording of mental illness.
Essentially, the number of mental health-related “items” or legal implementations to address stigma increased , which led to 2.5x increase in accurate mental illness reports.
In other words, it either became easier for people to come forward about their struggles or professionals were better able to identify mental illness in patients.
The Mental Health First Aid (MHFA) initiative established in 2001 has allowed participants (both health professionals and others workers who received this training) to:
Better identify mental illness
Be more confident in offering adequate support
Be more likely to recommend additional support (such as a GP recommending a psychiatrist)
More knowledgeable about the evidence-based treatments for mental illness.
Personally create more empathetic and de-stigmatised attitudes toward people with mental health problems.
Why is mental illness increasing in Australia?
First, I think it’s important to address the elephant in the room.
What impact has COVID-19 had on mental health in Australia?
Helplines like Lifeline received a record number of calls in a single day back in August, 2021. However, this was likely within a period of acute anxiety and depression…
Because a study by The Lancet found that acute anxiety rose by over 25% worldwide in 2020, following the outbreak of the pandemic, before dropping.
As of the most recent statistics outlined in “Is mental illness becoming more common?”, it seems that people quickly adapted to the circumstances.
However, as I said before, the effect that COVID-19 has had on the global population is difficult to truly decipher.
The youth in particular have faced a plethora of unusual circumstances in the past couple years:
Heightened anxiety, fear, and stress.
Parental depression
Negative family environment (like parental substance abuse)
Child abuse from parents
Poverty
Family conflict
Loss of school, sport, church and community routine
Loss of supportive relationships with friends, family members and others.
Therefore, while mental illness is undeniably increasing over time, the data says that COVID-19 has had no lasting effect thus far. How interesting?…
Why is mental illness increasing in Australia?
There are no certainties here, but…
One obvious possibility is media.
Whether it be Tiktok or Instagram (primarily Tiktok for those aged 16-24), trends are constantly changing, such as certain looks, ways of behaving and topics of interest.
An interesting US statistic outlines a rough correlation between the expansion of social media and the declining mental health of young people…
The number of adults between the ages of 18 and 25 who experienced psychological distress increased by 71% between 2008 and 2017.
Even a newer social media app called “BeReal” is weird to me. It’s a great business idea and the founders are definitely making unfathomable amounts of money off of it somehow, but it’s such a waste of time.
Such. A. Waste. Of. Time.
You’re expected to abruptly update people on your life - every day.
Unintentionally, this could encourage teenagers to fixate on making it look like they’re doing something interesting or that they look good, etc.
I can’t know that for sure, but I’ve observed it in people that I know.
Ironically, this doesn’t sound entirely “real” to me.
An additional reason why mental illness could be increasing among youth in particular is holistic damage.
By holistic damage I mean that when you look at the rising unemployment among youth aged 15-24, a lack of social connectedness because of COVID-19, the widespread and excessive use of social media and the regular psychological development occurring in teenagers - it seems inevitable that mental illness would increase among youth.
Although referring back to our data on stigma, the gradually increasing awareness and acceptance of mental illness could be contributing to more teenagers coming forward to talk about their personal struggles.
How can we address mental health issues in schools?
So far we’ve answered three things:
#1 To what extent mental illness is increasing in Australia
#2 Why mental illness is so common today
#3 Why mental illness is so common among students
And we’ve concluded that the youth or students are the most at risk.
So, how are we going to promote mental health and wellbeing in schools for the future?
Mind Matters (secondary school) and Kids Matter (primary school) aim to promote inclusion, mental health, and raise awareness of when and how to seek help for mental health difficulties.
Reachout.com by the Inspire Foundation aims to increase young people’s knowledge of mental health and wellbeing, increases their help-seeking skills and ensures that they feel less alone.
This is done through both online resources and 24h anonymous access to mental health support, a service that also addresses Australia’s vast rural and remote areas.
Rural Australia experiences higher levels of mental health stigma than in any other part of the country - especially for males.
How can teachers support students mental health?
At my old high-school, they implemented something called the “Zen-Zone”, an area where people can go to wind down. Relax in peace and quiet.
This supports three of the points provided by Victoria Education and Training to support student mental health:
Reassure that school is a safe place with opportunities to connect with others.
Build a sense of belonging by providing a space that students can be open with one another. Just like I referred to earlier, sharing stories and even forms of recovery is an effective way to promote both management and education on mental illness.
Talk about mental health, communication and seeking help.
How would you promote student wellbeing in the classroom?
Here are a few methods:
Address the six key elements of social and emotional learning into regular classroom activities.
These key elements include emotional literacy, personal strengths, positive coping, problem solving, stress management and seeking help.
Schedule for health. If you’re a primary school teacher, you could put fun activities at the beginning of the day and incorporate catch up time.
This catch up time could mean you and your class discussing what the students did on the weekend or just banter.
As a secondary school teacher, you could break larger assessment tasks down into chunks and ensure your students are aware of the boundaries in your classroom. (don’t interrupt people asking questions and don’t muck around? Something like that)
Finally, listen to your students and acknowledge these three things:
They have different personalities and ways of dealing the stressors of life.
They have different optimal ways of learning
They’ve had differing experiences.
That’s it!
Below are 4 numbers you can call if you’re struggling with ANYTHING mentally.
Even if you don’t think it’s necessary.
It doesn’t hurt to hear what professionals on the brain, on human psychology, on social issues affecting the population and with experience in the field of mental health think about your situation.
Lifeline on 13 11 14
Kids Helpline on 1800 551 800
Beyond Blue on 1300 224 636
Regards,
Riley.
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References:
Headspace National Youth Mental Health Survey 2018: Mental Health and Wellbeing Over Time
Mental Health and Wellbeing: Profile of Adults, Australia, 1997
Anxiety is rising among Australia's young people, but it's not just due to COVID-19
The Fifth National Mental Health and Suicide Prevention Plan
The long term impact of being "not in employment, education or training" on our young people
