CANBERRA, Sept 8 (NNN-AGENCIES) – A record high number of young Australians experienced psychological distress in 2020, a survey found.
Mission Australia and mental health research institute, the Black Dog Institute, today published their fifth biennial report on the mental wellbeing of young Australians.
It revealed that 26.6 percent of 25,103 respondents to the survey, aged 15-19, reported mental distress in 2020. By comparison, the figure was 18.6 percent in 2012.
Jennie Hudson, Black Dog Institute’s Director of Research, said, the study showed a gradual increase in mental health issues among young people, regardless of COVID-19.
“It’s not specifically COVID,” she told the Guardian Australia. “We know there have been increases in psychological distress (during) COVID. But this was the trend well and truly before COVID started, so I think that’s also an important message.
“But also climate change has had an impact … (Young people) understand that their lives, their futures are different to previous generations’,” she said.
The report found that young women were more than twice as likely to experience psychological distress than their male peers.
More than a third of women aged 15-19 reported mental health issues in 2020, compared to just 15.3 percent of men.
Young people with disabilities were the most affected, with 43 percent reporting distress. More than one in three of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander young people suffered psychological distress.
Those experiencing distress were reluctant to seek professional help, because they were “scared to get help”, felt “embarrassed” or felt they could deal with it themselves.
The findings prompted Mission Australia and the Black Dog Institute to call for governments, schools and families to work together to fight the youth mental health crisis.
“We all have a duty to safeguard young people’s wellbeing and properly support the enormous number of young people contending with mental health challenges,” Mission Australia chief executive, James Toomey, said, in a media release.– NNN-AGENCIES
