Mental Health Issues in Australia

Running head: Master of social work
Master of social work
Mental Health issues in Australia
Name of the Student:
Name of the University:
Author Note:

Master of social work 1
Mental health can be defined as the state of psychological and emotional well being of
a person (Batterham et al., 2015). In case the psychological and the emotional state of the
person are not well, the person suffers from mental illness. The history of mental health
illness has a custodial act of detention and deprivation from the liberty from the society.
Under this framework the mental illness was managed by imprisoning the mentally ill person
behind the asylum. This was a kind of punishment given to the victim with the objective that
the illness would not pass to the wider community. Situations were a bit different for the
wealthy families where they arranged their own asylum and treated the mentally ill person
behind the bars (Cowley et al., 2015).
According to The Department of Health, Australian Government, mental illness has
widespread in Australia and other developed countries and has impacted substantially the
population at the social, economic as well as at the personal levels (Health.gov.au 2009).
According to the results of the surveys conducted in 2007 by the National Survey of Mental
Health and Wellbeing, conducted by the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS), it has been
found that one out of five people between the age group of 16 and 85 are experiencing the
common forms of the mental illness (Health.gov.au 2009). These mental illness issues are
anxiety, mood disorders and ranging to issues like substance mood disorder. The prevalence
of the mental health issues are highest among the early adults who are found to establish their
families and working independently. The governmental approach towards the improvement
of the mental health services, support and care has further helped to build the reputation for
the nation. It has been seen that the Australian Government has invested a record of $2.2
billion in the mental health services to provide support and care and to bring improvement in
the delivery of the service (Health.gov.au 2009).

Master of social work 2
The aim of the essay is to focus on the social problems in Australia and to understand
the policy responses meant for this social problem. For this essay, mental health issues in
Australia have been selected and the policies developed for this issue will be considered for
the discussion. The idea is to contextualise the selected issue historically and to find out how
the policies developed for this issue can be improved so as to overcome the recent issues that
the country has been facing and how these policies can be improved. The practical
implications of the social workers in this context will also be highlighted in this context.
With the increased issues of mental illness among the children, adult and other
population in Australia, the government has come across various policies with the aim of
improving the mental health of Australians (Health.gov.au 2009). Some of those policies are
E-mental health strategy of Australia, Fourth National Mental Health Plan, National
Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander suicide prevention strategy, National Mental Health
policy, National Mental Health Strategy and other (Health.gov.au 2009). A critical analysis of
the two policies developed for the mental illness in Australia will be carried on to evaluate
the effectiveness of the policies and to understand the role of the social workers by implying
such policies in the countries.
The E-Mental Health Strategy for Australia set out a long term vision for developing
a high quality and accessible mental health care system to the people of Australia suffering
from the various mental illnesses. In the view point of Batterham et al., (2015), Australia is
always recognised as a developed country and a leader in creating and caring the people with
mental illness and the government has been found to come up with various strategies often.
According to the e-mental health strategy, the government aimed to provide online health
support to the sufferers and the victims. The service is provided by telephone crisis support
service. As opined by Wozney et al., (2017), that researches shows that those who participate