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Australia's mental health

by Dr Norman Swan

A national health survey has found a significant number of Australians have mental health issues.

24 08 2009

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The psychological wellbeing of Australians has become a lot clearer thanks to the second national mental health survey. The Australian Bureau of Statistics doorknocked thousands of households asking questions about common mental health problems.

They found that one in two of us will have anxiety, depression, or a problem with drug and alcohol abuse in our lifetimes. About one in five people surveyed had had a mental disorder in the last 12 months; and one in four of those had had more than one – losing about nine days of useful functioning every month.

Yet surprisingly few people were being treated. Largely because they felt they didn't need any help or, wrongly, they felt there was no help available. This included people who were suicidal.

It was also found that people with physical illnesses were more likely to have anxiety, depression or problems abusing alcohol and other drugs.

Since this survey was done the Government has provided more access to evidence-based psychological treatments so more people are receiving help. But these deep-seated beliefs that nothing that can be done are a problem, as is the stigma which still exists to people identifying themselves as psychologically unwell.

So it's important that doctors, friends and families recognise when someone has a mental illness and offer assistance, but it's also important to recognize that there may be more than one thing going on at the same time, a physical illness with anxiety and depression, or a drug and alcohol problem with illness with anxiety and depression and they all need to be treated so the person can become well again.

Note: This is the transcript of the video version of this story and may differ slightly from the original audio version as broadcast on NewsRadio.

For Reference

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