We may be living through a pandemic and a lockdown, but it seems fewer young Canberrans suffer from psychological distress. Nevertheless, COVID has revealed gaps in the mental health support system, and more must be done, according to a report published today by Mission Australia and the Black Dog Institute.
About a fifth of 15 to 19-year-olds in the ACT said they experienced mental health challenges in 2020 – a decrease from 2012, when almost a third of young people did.
The ACT figure of 19.9% was the lowest proportion by location. The ACT was also the only location in Australia where the proportion of young people reporting psychological distress decreased (by 10.9%) since 2012 (30.8%).
However, although numbers may have fallen, almost a third of teenage girls aged 15 to 19, almost an eighth of teenage boys, more than a third of Indigenous teenagers, and nearly a third of teenagers with a disability experienced psychological distress.
Mission Australia and the Black Dog Institute called for governments, schools, families, businesses, and others to prioritise tailored, timely and accessible mental health support to continue reducing the prevalence of mental ill-health among young people in the ACT.
Mission Australia’s Craig Westall said COVID had accentuated significant gaps in the mental health support system. More age-appropriate prevention and early intervention mental health services were needed; for these to be effective, young people must help to design, develop, and adapt them – both at school and within their communities.
“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. Every young person in the ACT should have access to appropriate supports at the time they need it, regardless of their gender, location, background, or any other circumstances, and most definitely under special circumstances like a global pandemic. A key part of this includes further investment in evidence-based digital mental health services.”
More than 75% of mental health issues developed before the age of 25, and these could have lifelong consequences, said Black Dog Institute’s Director of Research, Professor Jennie Hudson.
“We are still in the dark as to why mental health and suicide risk has increased in our current cohort of youth, a finding that is not unique to Australia.
“Early intervention in adolescence and childhood is imperative to help reduce these figures. This report shows that young people in distress will seek help directly from friends, parents, and the internet. As such, we need to continue to build gatekeeper support training, and provide online and app-based tools that may be a key part of the solution – something we are invested in doing at the Black Dog Institute.”
The Psychological distress in young people in Australia fifth biennial youth mental health report: 2012-2020 aims to better understand the prevalence and experiences of psychological distress faced by 15-19 year-olds in the ACT.
The report explores how young people with mental health challenges navigate life. It looks at how many young people were in psychological distress in 2020, and how they sought help. Friends, parents, services, schools, even the internet and apps can all provide support.
Key findings include:
- 29.0% of young females in the ACT said they experienced psychological distress, compared with more than one in eight young males (29.0% vs. 13.3%). This is the lowest proportion of young females experiencing psychological distress by location in Australia for 2020.
- Psychological distress decreased across both cohorts since 2012 – young females by 1.8% and young males by 17.5%.
- 34.0% of Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander young people from ACT reported psychological distress, compared with 19.2% for non-Indigenous young people (the lowest proportion for the cohort by location in 2020).
- Psychological distress decreased for both cohorts since 2012 – Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander young people by 6.0% and non-Indigenous young people by 3.7%.
- In 2020, 31.3% of young people with disability in ACT reported psychological distress – a decrease of 35.4% since 2012. 19.0% of young people without disability said they experienced psychological distress – a decrease of 0.6% since 2012.
- Psychological distress decreased across all age groups in 2020 for ACT since 2012:
- 15-year-olds: 22.8% vs. 50.0%
- 16-year-olds: 21.0% vs. 33.3%
- 17-year-olds: 18.4% vs. 20.0%
- 18-19-year-olds:15.8% vs. 19.0%.
- The proportion of young people with psychological distress from ACT in 2020, by all age groups, was the lowest for all locations. The largest decrease in psychological distress for young people from ACT was in the 15-year-old age group (by 27.2% since 2012).
The following findings are based solely on the 2020 Youth Survey data:
- Of the young people from ACT who reported psychological distress, 7.2% said they felt they have no control over their lives.
- The top three personal issues for young people in ACT with psychological distress were: coping with stress (68.4%), mental health (62.7%), and body image (54.4%). These were the lowest proportions for these issues by location. 35% of young people from ACT with psychological distress were concerned about suicide.
- 38.6% of young people from ACT with psychological distress reported sleeping six hours or fewer each night.
- 9.3% of young people in ACT with psychological distress stated they did no exercise in a week.
- 41.9% of young people from ACT with psychological distress said they were treated unfairly in the past year (the lowest proportion across all locations). The top three reasons for this unfair treatment were: gender (51.5%), mental health (44.4%), and race/culture (28.3%).
- The top three sources that young people in ACT with psychological distress reported they sought help from were: friend/s (72.9%), parents/guardians (48.3%), and the internet (42.4%).
- The top three barriers to seeking help were: feeling scared/anxious (66.7%), feeling embarrassed (61.6%), and feeling they can deal with it myself (58.6%).
