An Examination of the Australian Mental Health and AOD Reform Agenda

This essay provides an analysis of the reform agenda for mental health and alcohol and other drugs (AOD) in Australia. It begins by highlighting the prevalence of mental health disorders and the government's initiative to drive reform. The discussion section delves into the WHO's definition of mental health, emphasizing that the absence of disorder doesn't equate to good mental health. The essay explores the impact of political, social, and economic factors on mental health, focusing on the reform agenda's goals: to enhance the workforce's capacity to prevent AOD-related harm and minimize mental health disorders. It examines the socio-economic status (SES) and its relationship with mental health, acknowledging that individuals with different SES levels have varying access to resources. The essay also explores the influence of political factors, such as political involvement and changing political landscapes, on mental health. The key drivers of the reform movement—strategic use of evidence, public pressure, and serendipity—are also discussed. The essay concludes by emphasizing the significant role of political processes and socio-economic factors in shaping the reform agenda.

Running head: REFORM AGENDA FOR MENTAL HEALTH AND AOD
REFORM AGENDA FOR MENTAL HEALTH AND AOD
Name of the Student:
Name of the University:
Author Note:

1
REFORM AGENDA FOR MENTAL HEALTH AND AOD
Introduction:
In the last few years, huge part of the population of Australia reported to have been
suffering from common mental disorder and AOD related diseases. Mental health is a key factor
of economic participation and productivity in Australia and has a great potentiality to impact the
incomes and living standards of the Australian people. Recently, the Australian government has
made a strategy to create a national force for driving reform agenda for mental health and alcohol
and other drugs in the country (Groves, 2018).
Discussion:
The World Health Organization (WHO) defines mental health as “a state of well being in
which every individual realizes his or her own potential, can cope with the normal stresses of
life, can work productively and fruitfully, and is able to make a contribution to her or his
community” (Mousavi et al., 2015). In this regard, it can be said that absence of mental disorder
does not indicate presence of good mental health. The effect of political, social and economic
turbulence on mental health has been discussed in the following part of the essay.
The reform agenda was initiated with the view of achieving two main goals; to enhance
the capacity of the Australian workforce to prevent and reduce the alcohol and other drug related
harm across the domains of supply and also to minimize the occurrence of mental health disorder
among the people and to created a sustainable workforce capable of meeting future challenges
(Wheeler et al., 2018).
It is found that Australia is losing a lot year after year by ignoring social and economic
participation by people with mental ill health and alcohol and drug addiction (Seear, Lancaster &

2
REFORM AGENDA FOR MENTAL HEALTH AND AOD
Ritter, 2017). People who fit into society are likely to be more content and as a result healthier,
they are usually free from mental health and AOD related disorders. Poor social and economic
circumstances affect mental health throughout the life. Socio-economic status (SES) is a wide
topic that is used to analyze different aspects of a person’s lifestyle comprising of profession,
income, and education. It is necessary to concentrate on the socio economic conditions when
conducting health assignments. The reason being people of different levels of SES will have
different access to the medication, healthy food and physical activities. All these factors affect
the mental health and must be accounted for when making any reform movement to combat
mental health and AOD issues. The relationship between socio-economic status and physical and
mental health, disability and mortality is a long controversial topic. Low SES means results into
poor physical as well as mental health.
There are many social factors that can affect the status level of both health and fitness of
any person. Mental health is a state of well being and freedom from disease perceivable by an
individual. Socio- economic factors (SES) can have a pivotal role in health (Mason et al., 2015.
In many research convened, higher level of SES mean higher level of health and longevity which
results from better education and better health care. Poor way of lifestyle during pregnancy like
having mal nutrition food, doing excessive work, without proper rest and sleep can lead to less
development of fetus that can ultimately lead to the birth of weak individual. Slow and retarded
physical growth in infancy is associated with reduced cardio vascular, respiratory, pancreatic
problem and kidney development and function (Rikkers et al., 2016). Relative poverty means
being much poorer than many people of the community. The outcome of living in poverty is
detrimental in pregnancy, to babies, children and aged people. Besides these, poor SES also

3
REFORM AGENDA FOR MENTAL HEALTH AND AOD
results into addiction to alcohol and other drugs like cocaine, marijuana etc of people who try to
forget the pains and troubles of life by going into the intoxication (Ritter & Berends, 2016).
Political factors can also contribute to problems related to mental health and AOD.
Sometimes, people become so much deeply involved into politics that they forget about the
reality of life. Their whole concentration and thought process revolve around the political
scenario of the country. Sometimes the election and voting campaigns can also be a cause of
concern for the people who are involved in active politics either physically or mentally. They can
be boring, tiring and endless, no matter whom it is, one is voting for. Such situations can lead to
anxiety and depression causing mental health problems among the individuals. The rapidly
changing ruling political party of Australia along with the change of Prime Ministers can also
contribute to these.
In 2011 Australian Federal budget made a large investment in mental health and early
intervention services. In this essay, the focus is being made on the role of reform agenda in the
last four years to analyze why such reform agenda is required and what factors have led to give
effect to it. There are mainly three factors that are significant in getting the mental health issues
including AOD into the reform movement. They are: a) the strategic use of evidence to showcase
a publicly visible “problem”, (b) the marshalling of the public to pressurize Government and c)
the role played by Serendipity. In total, it is found that in order to discuss mental health reform,
one must understand its background as well so as to know the political, social and economic
factors that led to the reform movement to control mental health and AOD in Australia.
There were multiple frameworks that supplies the way of understanding how and why
such reform agenda was needed for this purpose. It is well known that mental health problems

4
REFORM AGENDA FOR MENTAL HEALTH AND AOD
and AOD related addictions are related to deprivation, poverty, inequality and other political and
socio-economic factors. Economic factors are one of the most significant factors that led to this
agenda. The most vital economic cause is the recessions in the country. During recessions, social
inequality in health can become more prominent. Mental health is found to be the main factor of
economic participation and productivity in Australia and thus can have impact on incomes and
living standards and social engagement and connectedness.
Conclusion:
Through this essay, it can be said that the political processes and socio-economic factors
have contributed immensely in influencing the reform agenda, to control it and check it, for the
mental health and alcohol and other drugs related health issues and diseases.

5
REFORM AGENDA FOR MENTAL HEALTH AND AOD
References
Groves, A. (2018). ‘Worth the test?’Pragmatism, pill testing and drug policy in Australia. Harm
reduction journal, 15(1), 12
Mason, C., Barraket, J., Friel, S., O'Rourke, K., & Stenta, C. P. (2015). Social innovation for the
promotion of health equity. Health promotion international, 30(suppl_2), ii116-ii125
Mousavi, S., Jmalzadeh, F., Kakanezhadifard, M., & Vaezi, O. (2015). Investigating the
Relationship between the Mental Health of Students with Working and Non-working
Mother’s. Health Education and Health Promotion (HEHP), 3(1)
Rikkers, W., Lawrence, D., Hafekost, J., & Zubrick, S. R. (2016). Internet use and electronic
gaming by children and adolescents with emotional and behavioural problems in
Australia–results from the second Child and Adolescent Survey of Mental Health and
Wellbeing. BMC public health, 16(1), 399
Ritter, A., & Berends, L. (2016). Twenty years of (non) reform in Victorian alcohol and other
drug treatment policy. Drug and alcohol review, 35(3), 250-254
Seear, K., Lancaster, K., & Ritter, A. (2017). A new framework for evaluating the potential for
drug law to produce stigma: insights from an Australian study. The Journal of Law,
Medicine & Ethics, 45(4), 596-606
Wheeler, A. J., Roennfeldt, H., Slattery, M., Krinks, R., & Stewart, V. (2018). Codesigned
recommendations for increasing engagement in structured physical activity for people

6
REFORM AGENDA FOR MENTAL HEALTH AND AOD
with serious mental health problems in Australia. Health & social care in the
community, 26(6), 860-870