Mental Health In Australia Essay
Background
Mental Health has always been a troubling issue in Australia, not to mention the world with recent statistics by the ABS stating that approximately 40% of people will have suffered a mental health issue or know someone who has in the last 12 months at any given time, and that the majority of the population will suffer form of mental illness in their lifetime (Australian Bureau of Statistics, 2008). As a result, Australia has many policies and programs in place within the mental health sector, notably the national mental health policy hope to make additions to. Here we will address the current effects of policy and explore the work already done in these fields and why more must be done.
Take stigma in regards to mental health. Stigma is an inherent problem in Australia and the sector, and many ideas and potential solutions have been put forward to combat this. These include education programs in schools that allow students to identify signs of issues so they can be identified and not ridiculed (Department of Health and Ageing, 2013), as well as programs …show more content…
Over the last 23 years since the introduction of the National mental health policy (Department of Health, 2009), Australia has taken some important steps towards furthering the mental health of Australians and suicide prevention as a whole. As approximately 50% of mental health issues will develop themselves before the age of 14 (Kessler et al., 2005) a focus on behavioral disorders and suicide early on through an educational program as there is already a program being run as a result of the last policy (Department of Health, 2009). Suicide rates are also often affected by complex mental health problems, and these must be picked up early on and dealt with so they do not develop into these complex mental health
Mental Health has always been a troubling issue in Australia, not to mention the world with recent statistics by the ABS stating that approximately 40% of people will have suffered a mental health issue or know someone who has in the last 12 months at any given time, and that the majority of the population will suffer form of mental illness in their lifetime (Australian Bureau of Statistics, 2008). As a result, Australia has many policies and programs in place within the mental health sector, notably the national mental health policy hope to make additions to. Here we will address the current effects of policy and explore the work already done in these fields and why more must be done.
Take stigma in regards to mental health. Stigma is an inherent problem in Australia and the sector, and many ideas and potential solutions have been put forward to combat this. These include education programs in schools that allow students to identify signs of issues so they can be identified and not ridiculed (Department of Health and Ageing, 2013), as well as programs …show more content…
Over the last 23 years since the introduction of the National mental health policy (Department of Health, 2009), Australia has taken some important steps towards furthering the mental health of Australians and suicide prevention as a whole. As approximately 50% of mental health issues will develop themselves before the age of 14 (Kessler et al., 2005) a focus on behavioral disorders and suicide early on through an educational program as there is already a program being run as a result of the last policy (Department of Health, 2009). Suicide rates are also often affected by complex mental health problems, and these must be picked up early on and dealt with so they do not develop into these complex mental health