RTime to focus on youth mental health
THE impact of any major adversity or opportunity in our lives depends partly on the timing.
Psychologists who specialise in trauma recognise how early life trauma has an especially harmful impact. Many of those we see with the most severe and chronic mental health problems have suffered from repeated sexual, physical or emotional abuse and/ or neglect in childhood.
The extra disadvantage that people face when encountering adversity at early stages was well illustrated by Daniel H. Pink in his book When.
As one example, those who graduate from school at times of low employment as opposed to high employment do not only suffer short-term disadvantage, but tend to have lower salaries 15 years later. One study found an average salary difference between these groups of more than $US100,000 across their careers.
As another example, children raised in poverty are commonly found to have worse physical health, mortality rates and more behaviour problems.
Strikingly, programs to help counter such disadvantages by introducing nurse visits to new mothers had wide-ranging beneficial outcomes. This simple practical measure well justified the expense.
The nurse visits not only helped reduce physical health and behavioural problems, but boosted education levels, led to less reliance on social welfare and increased employment rates for the mothers. Other benefits included increased breastfeeding and vaccination rates.
These issues are relevant to government policy, including helping buffer young people where possible from the harmful impacts of the pandemic. In this regard the government’s JobKeeper scheme will have made a significant difference in helping retain jobs and keeping unemployment levels relatively low.
In my view, it is especially important at a political and community level to support the opportunities and healthy development of young people to help counter the extra disadvantages that they have faced by experiencing the pandemic at an early stage in life. Data provided by the Australian Psychological
Society suggests that their mental health has likely suffered more than most.
For example, it is reported that 82 per cent of Australians aged 16 to 24 years have acknowledged at least some mental health problems during the pandemic. One in four of those surveyed acknowledged having had suicidal thoughts and 15 per cent report having attempted self-harm.
Their difficulties have likely been compounded by limited access to psychological services. In our practice we have noticed a particularly strong demand for child and adolescent services, well beyond what we can meet. Many psychology practices have closed their books. At this stage the federal government is reportedly meeting only 35 per cent of the psychology workforce target listed in the National Mental Health Service Planning Framework.
The Australian Psychological Society has recently outlined 10 urgent policy recommendations to government in a position statement. I would like to highlight four that particularly relate to the mental health needs of young people.
One is to prioritise mental health services to support the perinatal mental health of all Australian parents. Extra support at this time, like the visiting nurses’ study described earlier, is likely to lead to a wide range of benefits.
It is also important that children have access to psychological help in the school setting by increasing the psychology workforce based in schools.
It is also recommended to invest in child mental health hubs, and support their staffing by increasing the number of psychologists specifically trained in child and family mental health assessments and interventions.
A fourth recommendation is to introduce a youth mental health safety net to reduce the financial barrier to young people of accessing services.
Nothing is likely to support people’s resilience more than the personal experience of getting through difficult times and coming out the other side relatively well.
Young people have likely borne more of the brunt of the pandemic and our response to it in restrictions and lockdowns despite generally having faced less personal risk of severe harm from illness. I think their extra sacrifice justifies an extra emphasis on services that support their opportunities and wellbeing in future. An extra investment in the mental health of young people is likely to have compounding positive benefits for their long-term future and for society as a whole.
IT IS REPORTED THAT 82 PER CENT OF AUSTRALIANS AGED 16 TO 24 YEARS HAVE ACKNOWLEDGED AT LEAST SOME MENTAL HEALTH PROBLEMS DURING THE PANDEMIC.