Getting perspective on youth mental health

  • Melissa Raven

22 July 2010The recent spate of alarming headlines about youth mental health needs to be put into perspective, says Melissa Raven in Croakey

MONDAY’s release of the ABS report on youth mental health has generated predictable reactions of shock and outrage. Drawing on data from the 2007 National Survey of Mental Health and Wellbeing, the Mental Health of Young People, 2007 report highlighted the fact that one in four Australians aged 16–24 years had a mental disorder in 2007, but only a quarter of them accessed mental health services (including GP treatment of mental disorders).

In the Australian, headspace CEO Chris Tanti declared this ‘a shocking state of affairs’. On Crikey, Richard Farmer described the ABS report as ‘depressing and distressing’.

However, although we certainly should be concerned about mental disorders in young people, these prevalence rates and treatment access rates need to be seen in perspective. Firstly, the prevalence figures are significantly boosted by relatively high rates of substance use disorders, particularly harmful use of alcohol. A superbly timed paper by…

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Melissa Raven is an adjunct lecturer in public health at Flinders University

Photo: Andrew Jeffrey

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