Mental+Health+in+Australia+-+Issues+Divisions+Perceptions

Name: Fakhri Mumin Student Number: 07597312 Tutor’s Name: Emily Mann

=**__Point at Issue__** =

"Mental Health: How do we group mental health? Who have need of most attention? How do we confront the issue?"

=**__Cultural Artefact__** =

media type="youtube" key="fXxR2CTTqik" height="315" width="560" align="center"

The video is ad by HeadspaceAustralia YouTube video (2011), which summarises the mental health issues among young people; why it is happening to them, who is to be blamed and how matters such as the media, peer pressure and social stigma can create a never-ending battle of mental illness, all of which can also be applied to the population in general. It suggests that in most cases, people with mental health problem are less likely to disclose themselves and are usually have difficulties in seeking for help, which could strongly be related to others’ perceptions of what mental illness is; a weakness?

=__**Public Health Issue**__ =

Despite the improved overall health status of Australia in terms of smoking rates, life expectancy and death rates from coronary heart disease and stroke, mental ill health remains the prominent grounds for the non-fatal burden of disease and injury in Australia (Australian Institute of Health and Welfare [AIHW], 2006). Mental disorder has become a major issue in Australia that in 2007, over 45% of Australian adults were found to have experienced at least one mental disorder in their lifetime (Australian Bureau of Statistics [ABS], 2009, 2011); compared to only 18% in the 1997 health report (ABS, 2004). This increase in the total percentage of people with mental disorders indicated the need for proper education, awareness and treatment in mental health, aimed at reducing the number of incidents.

=__**Literature Review**__ =

Mental health issues across Australia can be looked at and broken down into different demographics. Based on factors such as gender, age, ethnicity, site of location and socioeconomic status, each will bear different distribution throughout the nation. The following are some literatures and researched studies that are going to depict the spatial distributions of mental ill health status all over Australia, along with the different factors that may have led to the acquired statistics.

The first one is age. Literatures suggested that young people are more likely than any other age group in Australia to experience mental illness because, despite the large number of young people in Australia who appreciate a decent level of physical health – as denoted in the levels of mortality, morbidity and disability – there was still evidence that indicated a higher percentage of young Australians with mental health problem (Rickwood, White, & Eckersley, 2007). For instance, with reference to a 12-month diagnosis conducted in 2007, around 26% of people ages 16-24 had a 12-month mental disorder, compared to only 5.9% in those ages 75-85 (ABS, 2007). This data is further supported by Rickwood et al. (2007) in their study of mental illness, in which after adjusting for the effects of gender, ethnicity, geographic locations and socioeconomic status, they notified a shift in the proportion of young people with mental disorder; from high to very high levels of psychological distress. The same trend was obtained in 2010 where the rates of mental disorders were also higher among young people, with the overall prevalence rates decreased as age increased (ABS, 2011). This coherent trend attained from different studies indicated the need for serious attention and measures. Some of the reasons contributed to these findings are, for example, in 2010 only a third of young people in Australia who have met the criteria for mental disorder were deemed to have actually attended any mental health services, that is, only 1 in 12 specifically requested help for psychological problems (Nehmy, 2010) and when compared to other age group, young people were also found to have the lowest rate of health service utilisation in 2010, which was similar to the results obtained in 2004 (Caldwell, Jorm, & Dear, 2004; Nehmy, 2010).

When we review mental health issues in Australia in terms of gender, studies have shown than men were more likely than women to submit to mental disorder in their lifetime, and this is merely because of the greater percentage of men than women to conform to the criteria for substance use disorder at some point in their life, which is often alcohol related (ABS, 2009). Some common reasons that may have led to the said statistics are, when compared to women, men are less likely to be aware of mental illness and are more likely to use either sleeping pills or tranquilizers as means of medications, instead of seeking for professional help (Cotton, Wright, Harris, Jorm, & McGorry, 2006). These behaviours commonly cause a delay in the early intervention and treatment of mental illness, which could lead to depreciation of an individual’s mental state thus placing further strain on their mental health (Happell et al., 2009). However, the aforementioned pattern was reversed if we are looking at mental ill health in gender in the perspective of a 12 months survey, such as the ones done in 2007, 2009 and 2010. In the surveys, contradicting to what will happen over a lifetime period; women were found to be more likely than men to have had symptoms of mental illness, that is, 22% in women versus 18% in men and this difference was merely because of the higher rate of anxiety disorders among women across all age groups in the 12 months surveys (ABS, 2009). All of these suggested that even a slight difference in the measurement methodology could bring about different figures and this is something that has to be acknowledged in future studies in order to obtain better understanding of the issues, with the aim of building a concrete comparison.

As for geographic location, residents of rural or remote areas have a higher prevalence than those who live in metropolitan areas for developing mental disorders (Caldwell et al., 2004) and this is strongly related to the ethnic group and the socioeconomic status (SES) of people living in the area studied.

A greater percentage of rural areas are settled by Aboriginals (ABS, 2010) and by socioeconomic disadvantaged people (Sankaranarayanan, Carter, & Lewin, 2010); two groups of community who are more likely to experience mental illness than the general population in Australia (Sankaranarayanan et al., 2010; Ziersch, Gallaher, Baum, & Bentley, 2011). When we look at ethnicity, data from Hospital impatient and mortality records showed a higher percentage of people of Aboriginal descendants than any other ethnic group in Australia to be hospitalised for mental and behavioural disorders (Butler, Allnutt, Kariminia, & Cain, 2007). Mental illness was also more likely to be present earlier in life among Indigenous people (Haswell-Elkins, Sebasio, Hunter, & Mar, 2007) that their psychological distress was twice of non-Indigenous Australians (ABS, 2011). As for the socioeconomic disadvantaged, research studies (e.g. Inder, Berry, & Kelly, 2011; Sankaranarayanan et al., 2010) had made a link between their poor access to social and health services with a lowly health outcome including mental health. A statistics by Taylor, Page, Morrell, Harrison, and Carter (2005) have also signified a substantial increase in the linear trend from high to low SES, evident for a number of mental disorders and suicide attempts in both sexes, which included the continue increase in the suicide rates for people in the low SES. The aforementioned findings provided a distinct clarification to the mental ill health status of people in Australia, with respect to geographical location, and few studies have made justifications to these claims.

<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 17px;">According to Qi, Tong, and Hu (2010), Indigenous community has fewer opportunities in seeking for mental health care. They were also considered to be the most disadvantaged ethnic group in Australia in terms of unemployment, income, housing and incarceration indicators (Ziersch et al., 2011). In addition, racism also contributed to the high prevalence of mental disorders in Indigenous community, due to the likelihood for them than any other ethnic group in Australia to experience racism, which leads to poor mental health and security consequence such as anxiety, depression and life gratification (Ziersch et al., 2011). As regards to people with low socioeconomic status, factors such as economic restraints and mobility, along with minimal education attainment have limited their access to attain proper health services and to obtain information on health risk prevention (ABS, 2010). Therefore, these are the aspects that need to be focused on before implementing any deterrence or health awareness induction among rural communities in Australia as they are considered to be the basis of the problem.

=<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 18px;">__**Cultural and Social Analysis**__ =

<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 17px;">Mental illness is considered to be a serious issue in Australia and this is supported by the abovementioned data from the AIHW, which illustrated the continuous growth of people with mental disorders regardless of the drop in other health issues such as the coronary heart disease and stroke (AIHW, 2006). By taking all different factors as a whole, there are two groups of people in Australia that are in need for extra attention, which are the youths and the Aboriginals.

<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 17px;">The youths are recognised as being in the period of vulnerability for the onset of mental health problems (Nehmy, 2010), for example, according to Bruns et al. (2007, as cited in Cohen, Medlow, Kelk, & Hickie, 2009), 75% of mental illness in adult is most likely to first develop before the age of 25 years and this is consistent with the data collected by the ABS (2011). Furthermore, when reflecting mental health issues across different ethnic group in Australia such as the Aboriginals, young people were still the age group that predominate the statistics (Rickwood et al., 2007). In a study by Sawyer, Miller-Lewis, and Clark (2007), young people who received counselling at school showed a substantially higher percentage in developing mental health problems, which suggested the need for the counsellors to attain better training in communication practice and in delivering counsels that are mental health related.

<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 17px;">In respect of Aboriginal communityin Australia, due to the health professionals’ lack of cross-cultural understanding of the Indigenous and the non-Indigenous population, it created communication gaps between them, which then negatively impacted the mental health services delivered thus the treatment effectiveness (Haswell-Elkins et al., 2007). This theory was supported by Hazelwood and Shakespeare-Finch (2011) in their study of cultural communication, where they summarised the importance of individuals to interact with one another seeing that people coexist as social beings that learn through interactions, that is, the more people stray themselves from interrelation, the further they may become from understanding each other.

<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 17px;">In conclusion, the mental health problem in both the youths and the Aboriginal community is somewhat related to poor communication between the practitioners and the patients. Therefore, by addressing this issue alongside the mental health awareness, treatment and prevention, better results could be achieved in reducing the number of people with mental illness. Health professionals should also be advised and properly trained in refining their communication and listening skills, with active listening skills in particular. Active listening is a listening mode that requires the listener to give a full attention to the speaker without displaying any personal interpretation of the conveyed messages (Fassaert, Dulmen, Schellevis, & Bensing, 2007; Weger, Castle, & Emmett, 2010) and as suggested in available literatures (e.g. Fassaert et al., 2007; Gonzalez, 2008; Rock, 2007), active listening is an essential communication skill that can create comfort, trust and understanding between speakers and listeners, which is crucial for professionals such as medical practitioners where a miscommunication could make worse a situation.

=<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 18px;">**__Artefact Analysis and Learning Reflection__** =

<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 17px;">Going back to the cultural artefact, it is a good way to exemplify and to elucidate the current mental health problem in Australia, especially for young generations because it recapitulates the whole topic and illustrates how serious and sensitive mental illness really is. For people with mental disorder, having to admit to endure the problem itself is incomprehensible because it involves shame, frailty, social stigma, acceptance and others’ perception of the issue. All this can lead to difficulties in seeking for help and those with low endurance might commit to taking drugs as a way of lifting the throbbing. Another reason why the video is apposite in addressing the issue is because it lacks of sex and culture bias. It attends to people of different race and gender to vindicate the problem, which designates that mental illness can happen to anyone regardless of their social backgrounds.

<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 17px;">With regard to reflection, throughout the course of doing the assignment, the literatures that I came across have allowed me to see the true position and circumstance behind the issues relating to mental health in Australia. I learnt that mental ill health is a very complicated matter as it revolves around diverse factors such as social upbringing and living standards, that is, in order to properly direct the problem, a lot of considerations have to be made. Since a small difference in a research methodology could create distinct findings (e.g. ABS 2009), it is something that needs to be rectify in future studies, so as to conclude to better prevention and solution strategies.

<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 18px;">__**References**__
<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 17px;">Australian Bureau of Statistics. (2004). Measures of Australia’s progress: 2004. Retrieved October 31, 2011 from <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 17px;"> http://www.abs.gov.au/ausstats/abs@.nsf/Previousproducts/CC420659CF4E1374CA256E7D00002640?opendocument

<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 17px;">Australian Bureau of Statistics. (2007). National survey of mental health and well being: Summary of results. Retrieved October 11, 2011 from []

<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 17px;">Australian Bureau of Statistics. (2009). Mental health. Retrieved October 11, 2011 from []

<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 17px;">Australian Bureau of Statistics. (2010). Health and socioeconomic disadvantage. Retrieved October 11, 2011 from []

<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 17px;">Australian Bureau of Statistics. (2011). Measures of Australia’s progress: 2010. Retrieved October 11, 2011 from [|http://www.abs.gov.au/ausstats/abs@.nsf/Lookup/by%20Subject/1370.0~2010~Chapter~Health%20%284.1%29]

<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 17px;">Australian Institute of Health and Welfare. (2006). Australia’s health 2006. Retrieved October 20, 2011 from []

<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 17px;">Butler, T., Allnutt, S., Kariminia, A., & Cain, D. (2007). Mental health status of Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal Australian prisoners. //Australian and New Zealand journal of psychiatry, 41//(5), 429-435. doi:10.1080/00048670701261210

<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 17px;">Caldwell, T., Jorm, A., & Dear, K. (2004). Suicide and mental health in rural, remote and metropolitan areas in Australia. //Medical Journal of Australia, 181//(7), 10-14. Retrieved from []

<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 17px;">Cohen, A., Medlow, S., Kelk, N., & Hickie, I. (2009). Young people’s experiences of mental health care: Implications for the headspace National Youth Mental Health Foundation. //Youth Studies Australia, 28//(1), 13-20. Retrieved from <span style="color: #000000; font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 17px; text-decoration: none;">[]

<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 17px;">Cotton, S., Wright, A., Harris, M., Jorm, A., & McGorry, P. (2006). Influence of gender on mental health literacy in young Australians. //Australian and New Zealand Journal of Psychiatry, 40//(9), 790–796. Retrieved from []

<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 17px;">Fassaert, T., Dulmen, S., Schellevis, F., & Bensing, J. (2007) Active listening in medical consultations: Development of the active listening observation scale (ALOS-global). //Patient Education and Counseling, 68//(3), 258-264. doi:10.1016/j.pec.2007.06.011

<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 17px;">Gonzalez, A. (2008). Are you listening to your patients?. //Endocrine Today. 6//(10), 28-29. Retrieved from http://search.proquest.com.ezp01.library.qut.edu.au/docview/199567848/fulltextPDF?accountid=13380

<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 17px;">Happell, B., Sundram, S., Wortans, J., Johnstone, H., Ryan, R., & Lakshmana, R. (2009). Assessing nurse-initiated care in a mental health crisis assessment and treatment team in Australia. //Psychiatric Services, 60//(11), 1527-1531. Retrieved from []

<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 17px;">Haswell-Elkins, M., Sebasio, T., Hunter, E., & Mar, M. (2007). Challenges of measuring the mental health of Indigenous Australians: Honouring ethical expectations and driving greater accuracy. //The Royal Australian and New Zealand College of Psychiatrists,15//, 29-33. doi: 10.1080/10398560701701155

<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 17px;">Hazelwood, Z., & Shakespeare-Finch, J. (2011). I’m listening: Communication for health professionals. Brisbane, Australia: Inn Press.

<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 17px;">HeadspaceAustralia. (2011, February 16). What contributes to young people's mental health issues? [Video file]. Retrieved from <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 17px;">http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fXxR2CTTqik

<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 17px;">Inder, K., Berry, H., & Kelly, B. (2011). Using cohort studies to investigate rural and remote mental health. //The Australian Journal of Rural Health, 19//(4), 171-178. doi: 10.1111/j.1440-1584.2011.01208.x

<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 17px;">Nehmy, T. (2010). School-based prevention of depression and anxiety in Australia: Current state and future directions. //Clinical Psychologist: The Australian Psychological Society, 14//(3), 74-83. doi: 10.1080/13284207.2010.524884

<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 17px;">Qi, X., Tong, S., & Hu, W. (2010). Spatial distribution of suicide in Queensland, Australia. //BMC Psychiatry, 10//(1), 106-115. doi:10.1186/1471-244X-10-106

<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 17px;">Rickwood, D., White, A., & Eckersley, R. (2007). Overview of current trends in mental health problems for Australia's youth and adolescents. //Clinical Psychologist: The Australian Psychological Society, 11//(3), 72-78. doi: 10.1080/13284200701870970

<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 17px;">Rock, R. (2007). Active listening: Can it reduce pain?. //Clinical Nurse Specialist, 21//(2). Retrieved from http://ovidsp.tx.ovid.com.ezp01.library.qut.edu.au/sp-3.4.2a/ovidweb.cgi?WebLinkFrameset=1&S=JKGFFPLKOBDDFGHGNCBLJBGCDOAHAA00&returnUrl=ovidweb.cgi%3f%26Full%2bText%3dL%257cS.sh.15.16%257c0%257c00002800-200703000-00066%26S%3dJKGFFPLKOBDDFGHGNCBLJBGCDOAHAA00&directlink=http%3a%2f%2fgraphics.tx.ovid.com%2fovftpdfs%2fFPDDNCGCJBHGOB00%2ffs046%2fovft%2flive%2fgv023%2f00002800%2f00002800-200703000-00066.pdf&filename=Getting+to+the+Heart+of+Patient+Education+Needs.&pdf_key=FPDDNCGCJBHGOB00&pdf_index=/fs046/ovft/live/gv023/00002800/00002800-200703000-00066

<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 17px;">Sankaranarayanan, A., Carter, G., & Lewin, T. (2010). Rural-urban differences in suicide rates for current patients of a public mental health service in Australia. //Suicide and Life-threatening Behavior, 40//(4), 376-382. doi: 10.1521/suli.2010.40.4.376

<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 17px;">Sawyer, M., Miller-Lewis, L., & Clark, J. (2007). The mental health of 13-17 year-olds in Australia: Findings from the national survey of mental health and well-being. //Journal of youth and adolescence, 36//(2), 185-194. doi: 10.1007/s10964-006-9122-x

<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 17px;">Taylor, R., Page, A., Morrell, S., Harrison, J., & Carter, G. (2005). Mental health and socio-economic variations in Australian suicide. //Social Science and Medicine, 61//(7), 1551-1559. doi:10.1016/j.socscimed.2005.02.009

<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 17px;">Weger, H., Castle, G., & Emmett, M. (2010). Active listening in peer interviews: The influence of message paraphrasing on perceptions of listening skill. //The International Journal of Listening, 24//(1), 34-49. doi: 10.1080/10904010903466311

<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 17px;">Ziersch, A., Gallaher, G., Baum, F., & Bentley, M. (2011). Racism, social resources and mental health for Aboriginal people living in Adelaide. //Australian and New Zealand Journal of Public Health, 35//(3), 231-237. doi: 10.1111/j.1753-6405.2011.00681.x

<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif;">__**My Discussion**__
<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 17px;">**Page**: Mental Health and Generation Y; Consumerism and Image to blame <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 17px;">**Comment and question**: <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 17px;">"Hi. Your explanation on generation Y is really good and thoroughly researched. Firstly, I completely agree when you said that gen y has the attitude of 'I don't care what anyone thinks', and I believe this behaviour is what causing the whole issue with gen y in the first place. Secondly, the literature you found that linked consumerism with happiness is brilliant, which in my perspective is something that is really current and relevant in gen y today. Last but not least, great work in transcribing the artefacts you're using with the importance of sociocultural images that the world is currently facing."

<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 17px;">"Having to read issues concerning gen y has made me asking for more theory, for example, did you find anything that specify the levels of complications that people who are considered to be gen y are facing, like is their problem such as consumerism go down as they mature or is it something that will continuously present among gen y?"

<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 17px;">**Page**: Sex Sells - Sport Doesn't <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 17px;">**Comment and question**: <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 17px;">"Hello Rachel, Great article on gender inequality in sports. I really like your chosen artefact because it clearly illustrated the points that you were making on gender and sports, and the literature you found on the establishment of sports as a male institution was also very interesting. I completely agree when you said that women today are still underrepresented when it comes to sports that they still receive little attention or exposure, in spite of the increase in their sports participation. But I was still shocked with the finding that you found that only 9% of women sport is covered in Australia, because I was expecting something a bit higher (around 20-30%). This has further opened my eyes on the issue and made me wonder, is there any organization formed just to deliberate the matter, for example, did you find any (women) bodies that address these inequalities? If there is any, how are they handling the dispute?"