July 2010     One in four young Australians aged 16–24 years had a mental disorder in 2007, according to figures released by the Australian Bureau of Statistics.

Anxiety disorders were the most common, affecting 15% of young people, with Post Traumatic Stress Disorder the most commonly experienced Anxiety disorder (8%).  Substance Use disorders affected 13% of young people with Harmful Use of Alcohol the most common Substance Use Disorder (9%).  Around 6% of young people had an Affective disorder with Bipolar Affective Disorder and Depression (3% each) the most common Affective disorders.

Almost one-third of young women had a mental health disorder compared with around one-quarter of young men. Young women were more likely to have Anxiety or Affective disorders while Substance Use disorders were more common among young men.

Young people with a mental disorder were more than 5 times as likely as those without mental disorders to use illicit drugs or misuse legal drugs; twice as likely to be current smokers and around 1.5 times more likely to drink alcohol at least weekly.

While the prevalence of mental illness is relatively high in young people, they have a relatively low use of mental health services. Just under a quarter of young people with a mental disorder had used mental health services in the previous year.  General practitioners were the service most frequently accessed by young people with a mental disorder (15%) followed by psychologists (10%).

Of young people that did not access services, most did not feel that they had a need for any type of assistance.Young people with a Substance Use Disorder were the least likely to use mental health services.

People living with a mental illness are missing out on key services and support to get them into the workforce, according to new research by SANE Australia, the national mental health charity.  A national survey on social inclusion shows that more than half of 559 people surveyed said their education had been cut short by their illness and they had not received help to resume study.

Chris Tanti, CEO of headspace, says that the Government’s proposed $227 million investment in mental health and wellbeing support, information and services will go some of the way to addressing these issues.

"A proposed  package of measures to tackle suicide and promote better mental health will make a significant impact on the lives of many Australians, particularly young people and those at risk of taking their own lives.  Early intervention is crucial in reducing the impact of mental illness and drug and alcohol use by young people in Australia".

He says that "Suicide rates amongst young people in Australia have reached appalling levels – men and women aged between 15 and 24 are in the highest risk brackets when it comes to suicide. We are in danger of losing a generation of young people if we don’t deal effectively with this crisis in our community."

"The new measures proposed by the Federal Government are an important step towards dealing with the
difficulties being experienced by our sons and daughters. But, this requires continued investment and our
constant vigilance."

From information provided by the ABS, SANE, and headspace, July 19 2010.

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