The mental health of young people has been steadily declining around the world over the past 15 to 20 years. This public health threat finally prompted the US Surgeon General Dr Vivek Murthy to issue a statement late last year on what he acknowledged as the “youth mental health crisis”.
However, the burden is not uniform. The Resolve Strategic Survey reported in this masthead showed the pandemic affected the mental health of 82 per cent of Australians aged 16 to 25 compared with 49 per cent of adults over 25. While not all of these young people need professional help, we have witnessed a surge of suicidal behaviour and self-harm in young people which has flooded into emergency departments across the country.
A more evidence-based response is likely to be a better guide to prevention. The answers are likely to lie in an analysis of megatrends of recent decades which have affected emerging adults. The candidates include rising socioeconomic inequalities, wealth transfer from young people to older generations, the insecurity of working conditions and career paths, the cost of housing and higher education, climate change and the impact of social media and smartphones.
In Victoria, the Andrews government, through its royal commission, has decisively aligned the state mental health system with headspace’s 12-25 age-group focus, supported cultural change and substantially boosted funding. These reforms are genuine and have inspired similar reforms in other countries. However, they are merely a base camp on the ascent to a solution.