Mental Health Week in Australia: Community and Wellbeing Report

This report provides a comprehensive analysis of mental health and community wellbeing in Australia, focusing on the annual Mental Health Week. It examines the initiative's objectives, the roles of the Australian government and non-governmental organizations (NGOs) in addressing mental health issues, and the value of community engagement. The report also explores the influence of media and social media in promoting mental health awareness and reducing stigma. It highlights the importance of initiatives like the Better Access initiative and the partnership between the government and NGOs in providing support and resources for individuals facing mental health challenges, including vocational and educational support, housing options, and psychosocial rehabilitation. The report emphasizes the significance of community involvement in providing feedback, promoting awareness, and fostering support networks. Finally, it underscores the crucial role of media and social media in disseminating information and shaping public perceptions of mental health. The report concludes by emphasizing the importance of a multifaceted approach to mental health promotion, involving government, NGOs, community, and media.

Running head: HEALTH AND WELLBEING 1
Mental Health and Community
Name
Institutional Affiliation

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Table of Contents
Introduction......................................................................................................................................3
An overview of the initiative, why it is necessary and what it hopes to achieve............................3
The role of government and Non-government agencies in addressing mental health in.................6
Australia...........................................................................................................................................6
The value of engaging community in mental health initiatives like Mental Health Week.............7
The role and impact of the media and social media in mental health promotion............................8
Conclusion.......................................................................................................................................9
References......................................................................................................................................10

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Mental Health and Community
Introduction.
Mental health is a term used to described as the condition of an individual’s emotions,
psychology and social life. This can then affects how the individual thinks, feels and acts in
everyday life and also how they handle situations of stress, how to relate with other people and
what decisions they make. In Australia, mental illness cases is a significant number as is in other
developed countries who face these situations as much. According to the National Survey of
Mental Health and Wellbeing, one in every five people aged between 16 and 85 experience cases
of mental illness and their symptoms once or more times in their lives. These mental health
issues cause a lot of challenges to the individuals affected and those around them and therefore
the Government of Australia has recognised this and they have come up with initiatives to deal
with this issue of mental health for its citizens (Bryant, Garnham, Tedmanson, & Diamandi,
2018). This essay will look at the annual Mental Health Week in Australia, its importance, the
role the Government and NGOs play in the fight against mental health issues, why it is important
to have community engagement in this fight and the role the media plays in this fight for mental
health.
An overview of the initiative, why it is necessary and what it hopes to achieve.
In Australia, the government is dedicated to ensuring they provide services dedicated to
monitoring the mental health of its citizens since statistics show that one in every five
Australians suffers from symptoms of mental illness yearly. One initiative that the country holds
yearly is the mental health week which happens in October in line with the World Mental Health
Day on 10thOctober and it is held across all Australian territories (Health.gov.au., 2019). The
theme for mental health week held in 2017 was “Do You See What I See?” and the campaign

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was aimed at questioning a number of stereotypes and views on mental illness held by people in
society. Therefore, they achieved this objective by encouraging Australians to start perceiving
mental illness and mental health in a better light.
The campaign was started since they saw the need to ensure there is a reduction of stigma
so that people can have the courage to seek help when they experience symptoms of mental
illness. Also in addition to this theme, for the 2017 World Mental Health Day people were
encouraged to make a pledge called #MentalHealthPromise whose aim was to reduce the stigma
people have against mental illness (Bryant, Garnham, Tedmanson, & Diamandi, 2018).. Some of
the promises that people made were to ensure they talk to their families and inform them that
they were there when anyone needed someone to listen and finally they would check in on their
friends and provide support where necessary. As for 2019, the theme for the World Mental
Health Day to be held in October focuses on suicide prevention. This is necessary since yearly,
approximately 800,000 people take their lives and a higher number attempt to do it. Since suicide
affects those around the person who has lost their lives it is important to address this issue.
Statistics show that it is the second highest cause of death among people aged between 15 and 29
years around the world (Health.gov.au., 2019).
Mental Health Week in Australia is quite important for citizens for a variety of reasons.
thanks to the National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI) and other stakeholders this yearly
campaign is successful in its aim to create mental health awareness. First, it allows for the stigma
against mental illness to be shattered in the public sphere. Mental health is one of the issues that
most Australians have a bias for and thus have a stigma against and hence people who have
mental health issues. Providing information on mental health shatters stigma against it. Next, it
impacts much more people than you would think. People who get touched by the awareness

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week do not have to be physically there. Through media, social media and word of mouth the
information spreads to those, not in attendance. Through the two-step flow theory of information,
data on mental health reaches people who do not have the ability to be there physically. Finally,
it gives those facing mental health issues the confidence to search for information and support
about it and thus prevent cases where they have gotten worse (World Federation for Mental
Health, 2019).
The initiative hopes to achieve a variety of goals so that it can help the citizens of
Australia for whom the week is set up for. First, with this weeklong event, the government and
other stakeholders hope to encourage people to build and make connections with and thus being
a community. They could do this by making sure that that they check up on their friends and
family, talking over a cuppa, learning from people in the community what is happening in the
society and finally they could join the social site mindshare where they could also talk to other
people when they are having issues. Another objective is to instil in people the idea that people
work together with the aim of reducing or ending discrimination and stigma against mental
illness. By doing this people will find it easy to ask for help when they suffer from mental health
and also people can recognise people suffering from mental illness and therefore get them the
help they need ('Do You See What I See?’, 2019).
Next, is to inform Australians of the options they have to check on their mental health
through seeking for support. The information includes information such as where they could seek
support on online sites such as beyondblue, headspace or reachout. Also encouraging people to
reach out for support from people around them. Finally, to encourage the thinking that
everybody’s health and wellbeing is of the utmost importance. Therefore everyone should take
certain steps such as sleeping enough, reducing the amount of alcohol taken, exercising, eating a

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balanced diet, having healthy and good relationships and learning stress management to have
good mental health (Health.gov.au., 2019).
The role of government and Non-government agencies in addressing mental health in
Australia
The Government of Australia plays a pretty active role in encouraging good mental
health and they do this by working with different stakeholders such as Non-Governmental
Organisations (NGO). One such NGO is the Mental Health Australia which works with the
government to fulfill some objectives such as educatingAustralians about issues on mental
health, promoting communities that mentally healthy, evaluate and research on issues of mental
health, affect and start reforms on mental health and thus ensure that policies by the government
addresses every aspect of the evolving mental health issues and finally carry constant
consultations which aim to put forth the best interests of all parties involved (1010.org.au, 2019).
Also, another objective of this NGO is to promote the human rights of mental health patients.
The government of Australia plays its part by funding and giving regulations to govern
the mental health services in the country. They do this by providing Medicare subsidized
services to treat mental illness at local hospitals such as through initiatives like Better Access
initiative, also the government subsidizes prescription medicine costs for mental health by way
of PBS and Repatriation Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme (RPBS). Next, they ensure people can
access quality primary health care through giving funding for the PHN Primary Mental Health
Care Flexible Funding Pool and finally caring for the mental health of veterans by way of the
Department of Veterans Affairs (Headtohealth.gov.au, 2019).
The partnership between the Government of Australia and NGOs while dealing with
issues on mental illness and health care services is beneficial to all stakeholders involved

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especially the patient. The partnership allows for several programs set up to deal with mental
health issues, first, providing vocational and educational support. This support will inform the
public on mental health issues, therefore, ensuring people are equipped to deal with any issues
they face (Australian Institute of Health and Welfare, 2019). Next is ensuring that there are
support and housing options available for mental health patients. Sometimes some families do
not understand people facing a crisis with their mental health, therefore, it ends up with many
cases of people suffering from mental illness being homeless hence these services gives them the
option to get help and housing at the same time. It also provides for psychosocial rehabilitation
and support for them or as a group. This enables people to seek or help when they need it which
will be professional and available easily for them. Finally, by giving these services it will
encourage people to have a sense of belonging creating families along the way and also giving
them options for careers since most people hardly employ people faced with mental health
issues. Examples of such services available include; Individual Psychosocial Rehabilitation and
Support Services (IPRSS) which is a partnership program that provides one-on-one rehabilitation
and support services for a person at home and in the community (Rosseau, et.al, 2018).
The value of engaging community in mental health initiatives like Mental Health Week
There is a lot of value gained with engaging the community in mental health initiatives
like Mental Health Week. Some of these values include one of these campaigns get the
opportunity to get feedback from the community. Engaging with the community enable them to
learn about any complaints they have and compliments on the campaigns they carry out on
mental health. With these feedback organisations and the Government are able to improve on the
complaints making the experience better (Bryant, Garnham, Tedmanson, & Diamandi, 2018).
Next, the community gets to have the feeling that they are taking part in the campaign for mental

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health awareness. By engaging the community, they can give their opinions on what they want to
be done and if it is doable the campaign can be restructured to suit these needs. Therefore, this
will enable the community to take part in the campaigns and events easier since they have a
feeling of belonging to them.
Another benefit is that by educating and having marketing campaigns that inform the
public on issues affecting mental health. This information will equip the people who get it with
ways to deal with any issues about their mental health, how to recognise symptoms of mental
health and what to do as a remedy to these symptoms. Therefore, they play a part in being
preventative and by increasing awareness of the ease to access resources available for the
community in the fight for mental health awareness and also reduce the stigma against mental
illness in the society. Finally, it helps equip people with methods to provide support for those
who are facing issues with their mental health. By giving this information to the community,
people can turn to each other for support when faced with issues thus deescalating the situation
(Bateman, & Fonagy, 2019).
The role and impact of the media and social media in mental health promotion
The social media and media in general play a crucial role and thus have effects of mental
health promotion in Australia. One way is that since the world now is always evolving especially
in terms of technology even the health industry has to grow with it. Since most people are
conducting their activities online these days, medical professionals should ensure that they to
keep their services up to date. With technological advances, people can now check online to get
services to treat their mental health without having to be physically there. An NGO like Head to
Health in Australia also plays its part to provide services to help with mental health issues. They
do this by having a digital platform which assists individuals having mental health issues access

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and locate the right digital mental health resources that suit these needs (Rosenberg & Hickie,
2019).
Another role media and social media plays are that it helps to evaluate the impact that
campaigns for mental health have on its audiences and thus create new ways to improve areas
they fail in. They do this by using the feedback they get on the social media sites for these
campaigns. Next, both these mediums help to give information to the masses on mental health
campaigns and also popularise to attend these events. Also, it helps to give them coping
mechanisms when they are facing mental health crises and are far from their medical health
providers (A. H. A., & Australia, 2019). Finally, it gives people platforms to be media health
awareness ambassadors which helps in the fight for the reduction of stigma towards mental
health.
Conclusion
In conclusion, mental health awareness is an important thing that everyone should be in
support of. In the current world, mental illness is quite prevalent hence steps should be taken to
combat this. In Australia, the government has taken this initiative through the Mental Health
week and others and thus it helps its citizens in this fight. Other governments should emulate this
and it will result in more people globally getting the help they need concerning their mental
health.

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References
1010.org.au. (2019). 'Do You See What I See?' — October 10 World Mental Health Day. [online]
Available at: https://1010.org.au/.
Australian Institute of Health and Welfare. (2019). Mental health services Overview - Australian
Institute of Health and Welfare. [online] Available at: https://www.aihw.gov.au/reports-
data/health-welfare-services/mental-health-services/overview.
Bateman, A. W., & Fonagy, P. (Eds.). (2019). Handbook of mentalizing in mental health
practice. American Psychiatric Pub.
Bryant, L., Garnham, B., Tedmanson, D., & Diamandi, S. (2018). Tele-social work and mental
health in rural and remote communities in Australia. International Social Work, 61(1),
143-155.
Headtohealth.gov.au. (2019). 6 ways Head to Health can help you. [online] Available at:
https://headtohealth.gov.au/.
Health.gov.au. (2019). Department of Health | Mental health. [online] Available at:
http://www.health.gov.au/internet/main/publishing.nsf/Content/Mental%20Health
%20and%20Wellbeing-1.
Rosenberg, S., & Hickie, I. (2019). No gold medals: Assessing Australia’s international mental
health performance. Australasian Psychiatry, 27(1), 36-40.
Rosseau, G., Johnson, W. D., Park, K. B., Sánchez, M. A., Servadei, F., & Vaughan, K. A.
(2018). Global neurosurgery: current and potential impact of neurosurgeons at the World
Health Organization and the World Health Assembly. Executive summary of the World

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Federation of Neurosurgical Societies–World Health Organization Liaison Committee at
the 71st World Health Assembly. Neurosurgical focus, 45(4), E18.
To, A. H. A., & Australia, W. I. (2019). Awareness into Action.
https://samentalhealthcommission.com.au/
World Federation for Mental Health. (2019). Announcing the WMHD 2019 theme - World
Federation for Mental Health. [online] Available at: https://wfmh.global/announcing-the-
wmhd-2019-theme/ .