National Health Priority Essay 2022

Healthcare
National Health Priority

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A National Health Priority – Mental Health in Australia
The intent of this essay is to discuss one national health priority in Australia and
illustrating its impact on the population of the country. Besides this, the essay is also
highlighting the availability of present health promotions that are being used to deal with the
health issue. In the end, it is presenting the available gaps in the health promotion of the
health issue.
Mental Health Disorders is included as one of the major health priorities because it is
related to the conditions and behavior which affect the social working and capacity of day to
day life. Besides this, the cases related to mental disorders are increasing in number in the
Australian region in comparison to other health illnesses. Mental health disorders led to death
which was identified as the major cause of around 5715 death registered, highlighting 4.1%
of all the death registered in Australia in the year 2007. This was considered to be an increase
of around 559 (11%) the time it is compared with 2006 records. In all, there were around
19734 deaths which were linked with Mental health disorder (Australian Bureau of Statistics,
2009).
Mental illness is said to be very common in Australia. It has been believed that there
is one out of five (that is 20%) people in Australia that lie under the age group of 16-85 years
deal with mental illness in any year (Black Dog Institute, 2020). The most general illness in
this is anxiety, substance use disorder, and depressive. All these three types most of the time
occur in combination. For instance, an individual with anxiety also holds the chance to
develop depression, or an individual with depression can also get involved in using alcohol or
drugs as a self-medicate effort (Willis, 2019). Out of 20% of the people in Australia who
have a mental illness, 11.5% deal with a single disorder, whereas there are 8.5% of the people
who deal with two or more mental disorders. As per the analysis, around half of the people in

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Australia that are 45% will deal with mental illness in their lifetime (Black Dog Institute,
2020).
The inception of mental illness is classically about mid-to-late teenage years and the
youth of Australia that lies under the age group of 18-24 years holds the higher occurrence of
any of the mental illness in comparison to other age groups. As per the data presented by the
Mission Australia’s Youth Survey 2014, there is one out of five young people (i.e. 21.2%)
who lie under the age group of 15-19 years encountered the standards for a likely grave
mental disorder. The general type of mental illness that is found among the people of
Australia is substance use disorder (5%), depressive disorder (6%), and anxiety (14%) (Black
Dog Institute, 2020).
As per the national survey conducted by the Australian Bureau of Statistics of the
Mental Health and Wellbeing, provided a complete approximation for the cases of mental
disorders among the adults of Australia over their lifetime and in the previous 12 months
(Cook, 2019). As per the survey conducted on the Australians some of the occurrence and
impact of mental health condition is presented below:
As per the recent survey, it has been estimated that there were around 4.8 million
people of Australia (i.e. 20.1%) are experiencing behavioral or mental conditions in the year
2017-18. This is considered to be an increase of around 2.6% from the year 2014-15, majorly
because the increased number of people are being registered related to anxiety disorders and
depression (Cook, 2019).
As per the survey of mental health and wellness, directed by the Australian Child and
Adolescent conducted in 2013 and 2014, revealed that there were around 14% of the youth
who lie under the age group of 4 to 17 years dealing with a mental illness in the 12 months
before the survey was conducted (Cook, 2019).

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Poor mental condition is also related to suicidality. As per the data presented by ABS,
there were around 3128 people who died in the Australian region due to intentional self-harm
in the year 2017, which is an increased data in comparison to 2866 cases in the year 2016
(Cook, 2019). Where suicidality is not just considered to be limited to people with having
poor mental situation, the NSMHWB projected that there are 94.2% of persons who tried
suicide in the preceding 12 months had a deal with the mental disorder in the same duration
(Cook, 2019).
As per the data presented by Hayes (2019), the rate of depression and anxiety are
increasing as the ABS survey. The survey identified that around half of the population of the
country have one or more chronic illness in the year 2017-18 in comparison to the data of
2007-08. But, in the list mental health is on the top of the chronic illness in 2017-18. Below is
the image highlighting the data for the same.
Source [(Hayes, 2019)]
The positioning of Mental Health on Wellbeing Framework

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Source [(Coffs Coast Outlook, 2019)]
Mental health promotion focuses on increasing the ability of adults, older people,
youth, and children to understand their potential, cope with the general issues like the stress
of life, and take part in different activities that take place in their community. It also focusses
on augmenting the awareness and knowledge of problems of mental health, decrease
discrimination, and shame, and enforce help-seeking behavior whenever required (Sharma,
Atri & Branscum, 2011). At the individual level, the promotion of mental health concentrate
on augmenting the emotional pliability and decreasing weakness to the problems of mental
health by the self-esteem and personal skill development that result in an increased capacity
to deal with the life changes and stresses. At the community level, it focusses on developing a
healthy environment, and develop supportive and comprehensive social networks. At a
structural level, it focusses on confirming that public policies are addressing the mental health
and wellbeing, for instance, endorsing equity and presence and decreasing discrimination by
adopting accountable media commentary (The Department of Health, 2009). One of the

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examples of the mental health promotion that is being run in Australia is Mental Health First
Aid (MHFA).
The MHFA Program is a mental health literacy problem for the people of Australia
which focuses on increasing awareness among adults in the society related to the ways to
support those dealing with the mental illness. This course is enabled by attributed instructors
and is not developing any therapy or support group for dealing with mental illness. The
information provided by this course comprises particular information related to mental illness
like depression and anxiety, bipolar mood disorder, along with psychotic disorders
comprising substance misuse, suicide prevention, and schizophrenia disorder (South Western
Sydney Local Health District, 2015). In addition to this, there are some other national mental
health strategies designed by the government of Australia for improving the lives of the
citizens dealing with mental illness. Some of them are discussed below.
The national mental health strategy was recognized in the year 1992 by the Health
Minister’s Conference of Australia as the model that guides the reform of mental health. This
strategy aims to address the mental health in the community of Australia, decrease the
influence of mental illness on the community, families, and individuals, and ensure the
people's right with mental illness. The strategy that are part of it are National mental health
plan, National mental health policy, and Mental health statement (The Department of Health,
2014).
In spite of all these mental health strategies, there are around 54% of the people in the
country with mental disorder who do not get access to the treatment of the illness. This is a
major gap or loophole of this mental health promotion. The situation of these people is
worsened due to delay in the suitable treatment because of the serious issues in the
identification and precise analysis. The share of people dealing with the problem that are

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getting treatment is considered to be half of those people with physical disorders. It has been
believed that access to the treatment is important because around 75% of the people who are
admitted to the mental health inpatient services of the public sector enhance notably.
In the conclusion, it can be highlighted that mental health illness of mental health
disorders in the Australian community is a major issue that needs to be properly addressed
not just by the government but also by different private sector organizations to reduce the
number of patients with a mental disorder. As the analysis revealed that mental health
disorder is on the top of the list of health priorities in Australia which requires quick
assistance. Besides this, it has been identified that there three main issues of mental illness
that are anxiety, substance misuse disorder, and depression. The above data also reveals that
mental disorder is also a major reason for death in the country and many patients commit
suicide or harm themself due to this disease. In order to properly deal with this issue, not just
the government but also the family members of the patient need to be aware of the ways that
can protect their loved ones from the negative impact of this disease. In order to learn those
ways, they can take part in the MHFA Program.

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References
Australian Bureau of Statistics. (2009). National Health Priority Areas. Retrieved from
https://www.abs.gov.au/ausstats/abs@.nsf/Products/5317BAD6B8EEE19ACA25757
C001EED30?opendocument
Black Dog Institute. (2020). Facts & figures about mental health. Retrieved from
https://www.blackdoginstitute.org.au/docs/default-source/factsheets/
facts_figures.pdf?sfvrsn=8
Coffs Coast Outlook. (2019). Wellbeing-framework. Retrieved from
https://coffscoastoutlook.com.au/nz-wants-to-make-people-happy-not-rich-will-it-
work/wellbeing-framework/
Cook, L. (2019). Mental health in Australia: a quick guide. Retrieved from
https://www.aph.gov.au/About_Parliament/Parliamentary_Departments/
Parliamentary_Library/pubs/rp/rp1819/Quick_Guides/MentalHealth
Hayes, P. (2019). Mental health issues increasing among Australians. Retrieved from
https://www1.racgp.org.au/newsgp/clinical/mental-health-issues-increasing-among-
australians
Sharma, M., Atri, A., & Branscum, P. (2011). Foundations of Mental Health Promotion 1st
ed. India: Jones & Bartlett Publishers.
South Western Sydney Local Health District. (2015). Healthy Populations. Retrieved from
https://www.swslhd.health.nsw.gov.au/populationhealth/PH_Promotion/
hltPop_mhPromotion.html

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The Department of Health. (2009). Mental health promotion. Retrieved from
https://www1.health.gov.au/internet/publications/publishing.nsf/Content/mental-pubs-
n-pol08-toc~mental-pubs-n-pol08-2~mental-pubs-n-pol08-2-2
The Department of Health. (2014). National mental health strategy. Retrieved from
https://www1.health.gov.au/internet/main/publishing.nsf/Content/mental-strat
Willis, O. (2019). Mental health concerns increasingly common among young Australians,
report finds. Retrieved from https://www.abc.net.au/news/health/2019-10-23/mental-
health-concerns-increasingly-common-young-people/11628094