Mental Health Education and Literacy in Schools: The Australian Experience

Youth Mental Health In Australia

There has been considerable research and study carried out about the onset of mental illnesses and mental health problems in people, not only in Australia but around the world. The evidence suggests that three in four mental health disorders emerge by the age of 24 and half by the age of 14 (Kessler, Berglund, Demler, Jin, Merikangas, & Walters, 2005; Sawyer, Arney, Baghurst, Clark, Graetz, & Kosky, 2000; McGorry, Purcell, Hickie, & Jorm, 2007). In 2013 - 2014, around a quarter of all young people aged 16-24 years in Australia had a mental disorder (approximately 26% or 671,000 young people). One in seven children and adolescents aged 4 - 17 years experienced a mental disorder in 2013 - 2014, which is equivalent to 14% or 560,00 young people. Depression impacts on the lives of 1 in 35 or 2.8% of young Australians aged 4-17. The statistics for anxiety are even greater where 1 in 10 adolescents aged 18 - 25 and 1 in 25 children aged 13 - 17 experience the condition. (Orygen Youth Health, 2008). Of concern was the fact that there was an increase of probable serious mental illness in the age group 15 - 19 from 18.7% in 2012 to 22.8% in 2016 (Mission Australia, 2016). Lawrence and colleagues (2015) commented that mental disorders were the leading cause of illness and disability for young people aged 10 to 19 years, ahead of any physical disease.