Mental Health Nursing: Understanding Depression and Suicide in Australia

Running head: MENTAL HEALTH-NURSING 1
Mental health nursing
Student’s name
Institution affiliation

MENTAL HEALTH-NURSING 2
Mental health-nursing
Mental health encompasses social, emotional and psychological well-being. Mental
health affects how people act, feel and think. Jack is a person who has a mental problem, and this
affects how he thinks and acts because he is not able to handle stress on his own. His choices and
his relationship with others are influenced by his stressful condition meaning that he has a mental
illness. According to psychologists, depression is a severe condition that changes people’s lives
negatively and even leads to suicidal thoughts. In Australia, there are many cases of suicide in
Australia making suicide the primary cause of death in the country. According to reports, more
than 60000 people in Australia try to commit suicide while over 3000 people die due to suicide
in the country annually. The people will look more on how to health a patient like Jack who is
depressed and how a nurse can assist him.
Suicide and depression in Australia
Depression is an illness that has severe consequences to the lives of people including how
people relate with others. In this case, Jack is depressed, and this affects his two-year relationship
with Jill. Since Jack’s father died, Jack became depressed, and this influenced his learning and
even his relationship with Jill his girlfriend. When Jack’s father was alive, Jack had no issues
with the surrounding and always had fun with his girlfriend, but things changed after the death of
her father. Individuals who experience depression, therefore, experience both psychological and
physical symptoms.
World Health Organization (WHO) states that over one million Australians experience
depression disorders which accounts for about 6 percent of the population (Conner et al., 2019).
The increase in rates of depression in Australia means that mental health nurses have to come up

MENTAL HEALTH-NURSING 3
with solutions to solve this increasing problem. Jack is therefore among the many people in
Australia who cannot be able to handle stress and ends up becoming depressed. Jack never finds
her mother at home because she is always busy looking for money to satisfy her family.
Depression is, therefore, a significant problem in Australia and requires attention from the
involved nurses (Churruca, Draper, & Mitchell, 2018).
In Australia, suicide is the key cause of death according to reports by the world health
organization (WHO). Most people in the country who commit suicide in the country which
accounts for about 4 percent of the population. But the number of men who commit suicide in
the country are men while the smaller percentage represents women (Fazel et al., 2016). It is also
proven that over 60000 people in the country try to commit suicide every year. Jack is among the
people in the country who feels like attempting suicide because of the loss of his father. He even
tries to take a lot of alcohol and wrong medicine due to his condition. He also thinks of
committing suicide in other places with work tools, but he never gets a chance because people
are always there early in the morning.
Community affected
Some people are more prone to suicide while others are at risk of experiencing
depression. For instance, those people who find it difficult to cope with stressful conditions get
depressed more, and some even get suicidal thoughts ((Lipsedge and Calnan, 2016). According
to McNamara et al. (2014), Aboriginal men are more prone to depression in Australia and
symptoms are greatly exhibited in them. It is because of the poor connection in cultural and
social features associated with aboriginal life, and marginalization. Aboriginal Australians have

MENTAL HEALTH-NURSING 4
poor mental conditions due to the cultural and social conditions when compared to non-
aboriginal Australians.
On the other hand, Townsend and Morgan (2017) indicate that most people who get
depression affects people in the country differently. A community like Melbourne which is an
Indian community in Australia is said to be more prone to suicide due to different social and
cultural factors. The social distress and sociocultural changes among the Indian community
which migrated to Australia contributes significantly to the increased suicide cases in the country
(O’Connor and Colucci, 2016). Aboriginal group is therefore at high risk of depression while
Melbourne community is more prone to suicide in the country.
Reasons for the current condition
Jack has experienced the current mental status due to family problems. First, Jack
condition is due to the death of his father who died 11 months ago. The death of his father left
him with his younger brother and his mother but he does Jack does not feel contented with the
current situation. Jack is close to her mother, but since his father past, he never had such an
intimate relationship with her mother like before. Jack’s mother is forced to work for extra hours
meaning because she has to settle all the bills on her own because she is the sole provider for the
family. Because of this, she does not have enough time to spend with Jack. In the weekdays she
is always fixed, and in the weekends she complains of being too tired from work. Lack of
someone to stay with at home is, therefore, a major cause of his condition. It seemed like when
Jack’s father was alive, Jack had more time to spend with his parents and therefore never felt
stressed.