*** This article was updated on 11 October with additional resources ***
Introduction by Melissa Sweet and Alison Barrett: World Mental Health Day has put the focus on protecting mental health as a universal human right. The rights to a safe, healthy environment and to freedom from persecution and violence are also very much in focus this week, amid violence and trauma in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, and the loss of thousands more lives from an earthquake in Afghanistan.
The mental health impacts of these events are also being felt around the world.
In Australia, meanwhile, months of toxic public discourse leading up to the referendum on the Voice have taken a heavy toll on the health and wellbeing of many Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people and organisations. The rights of First Nations people, to safe and respectful environments that support social and emotional wellbeing and the cultural determinants of health, as well as the right to culturally safe services, must be prioritised.
Related releases include:
• The National Mental Health Workforce Strategy 2022–2032 and associated documents “provide a vision and roadmap for building a sustainable workforce that is skilled, distributed and supported to deliver mental health treatment, care and support that meets current and future population needs”. See statement from Health Ministers Mark Butler and Emma McBride.
• The World Health Organization released a report, Mental health of refugees and migrants: risk and protective factors and access to care. It identifies five high-level themes, each of which has implications for research and policy and is relevant across refugee and migrant groups, contexts and stages of the migration process: self-identity and community support; basic needs and security; cultural concepts of mental health as well as stigma; exposure to adversity and potentially traumatic events; navigating mental health and other systems and services. (Read more here, from Health Policy Watch).
• The World Health Organization and the United Nations Human Rights Office of the High Commissioner have released a publication, ‘Mental health, human rights and legislation: Guidance and practice’, which sets “a clear mandate for mental health systems to adopt a rights-based approach”. The document “highlights how laws can address stigma and discrimination and provides concrete measures on how to eliminate coercion in mental health services in favour of practices that respect people’s rights and dignity”.
According to the latest ABS National Study of Mental Health and Wellbeing, two in five Australians aged between 16 and 85 years have experienced a mental disorder sometime in their life, with one in five experiencing symptoms in the twelve months prior to completing the ABS survey.
The survey found that anxiety is the most prevalent mental disorder in 2020-2022, with more females having anxiety than males (21.1% of females compared to 13.3% of males).
“These statistics are deeply concerning and highlight the pressing need for federal, state and territory governments to work with clinicians at the front lines to create a comprehensive, long-term workforce planning and resourcing strategy and enact system-wide reform,” President-elect of the Royal Australian and New Zealand College of Psychiatrists Dr Astha Tomar said in a statement.
“While it is encouraging to see that more Australians accessed mental health support in the past two years, we remain concerned about the burgeoning waitlists and long ED wait times in public hospitals,” Tomar added.
In response to the ABS data, Royal Australian College of GPs President Dr Nicole Higgins said “mental health consultations cannot be rushed, these are complex and often very sensitive issues”.
“Longer consultations need to be affordable for anyone who needs them, no matter where they live or how much they earn. There is urgent need to increase funding for Medicare patient rebates for longer consultations, so no patient misses out on the care they need.”
Northern Territory, ACT, Western Australia and Queensland had the highest proportion of people with any type of mental disorder, noting wide margins of error particularly in NT and ACT, the ABS survey also found.
Combining data collected from two cohorts between 2020 and 2022, the ABS measured lifetime mental disorders – number of people who met the diagnostic criteria for a mental disorder at some time in their life – and 12-month mental disorder – the number of people who met the diagnostic criteria for a mental disorder at some time in their life and had sufficient symptoms in the 12 months prior to when they completed the survey.
The findings come as some states mark Mental Health Week and others mark Mental Health Month.
Below are some local resources shared by Darling Downs and West Moreton PHN when guest tweeting last week at Croakey’s curated Twitter account, @WePublicHealth.
Darling Downs and West Moreton PHN write:
Read more about the Good Design Award here and a link to the Head to Health website here.
Local research
Events
To see if there’s a roadshow near you in the coming weeks, visit this website.
Darling Downs and West Moreton PHN are also hosting a hybrid forum on 19 October about ‘Shifting minds: The Queensland Mental Health, Alcohol and Other Drugs, and Suicide Prevention Strategic Plan 2023–2028′.
The forum panel will include Ivan Frkovic, Queensland Mental Health Commissioner. For more information and registration, read here.
Visit Head to Health website here.
Additional support
Lifeline: 13 11 14
Suicide Call Back Service: 1300 659 467
beyondblue: 1300 224 636
13Yarn: 13 92 76
Kids Helpline: 1800 551 800
QLife: 1800 184 527
Check-In (VMIAC, Victoria): 1800 845 109
Lived Experience Telephone Line Service: 1800 013 755
See Croakey’s archive of articles on mental health.
