This report into the mental health and wellbeing of police and emergency services reflects the voices and experiences of 21,014 serving and former employees and volunteers from police, fire, ambulance and state emergency services agencies. The response rate signals that mental health and wellbeing are not only important, but top of mind.

Each year, Mission Australia encourages young people aged 15-19 to ‘speak up’ about the issues that concern them through Australia’s largest annual youth survey. Over 28,000 young people participated in 2018. For the first time, mental health was the number one issue of national concern in every Australian state and territory.

The Australian Psychological Society (APS) and Swinburne University of Technology have undertaken the most comprehensive measure of loneliness yet completed in Australia. The survey of more than 1,600 Australians confirms that loneliness is strongly connected to poorer quality of life, lower psychological wellbeing, higher social discomfort and poorer quality social networks.

This report adds significantly to previous work by the Carnegie UK Trust and Joseph Rowntree Foundation that uncovered powerful examples of where kindness and everyday relationships can affect change and support the wellbeing of individuals and communities.

This in-brief report presents key findings from the upcoming AIHW report Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander adolescent and youth health and wellbeing 2018. It brings together data for Indigenous people aged 10–24 on health and wellbeing outcomes, social and economic determinants of health, health risk factors, and health service use.