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One in two people will have mental illness
Monday, 20 July 2009Findings of the second National Survey of Health and Wellbeing show that one in two people will have a diagnosable problem with anxiety, depression or drug and alcohol misuse in their lifetime.
Interviewed by Norman Swan on ABC Radio National, Professor Whiteford said that surveys such as these are important because of the information they offer, not just on those accessing mental health services, but on those people who do not.
“For mental health, that’s particularly important, because we know that most people with diagnosable mental disorders don’t see a health professional,” said Professor Whiteford.
“So only by population surveys can you get a handle on what this specific group, their needs are, why they're not accessing services, how severe their illnesses are and that's [what] we're looking for in this survey.”
The survey, conducted by the Australian Bureau of Statistics in 2007, collected information from approximately 9,000 Australians in all states and territories.
Professor Whiteford said that the survey found that most people who did not seek treatment said they did not believe they needed it, or that they should not seek help, or that their symptoms could not be helped by mental health interventions.
“Other key findings were that it was common to have physical illnesses as well as mental disorders together,” he said.
“Mental disorders are quite disabling -- nearly four days in the previous thirty the person with the disorder was unable to carry out their usual activities.”
Professors Philip Burgess and Wayne Hall were also interviewed on the program. Professor Burgess described the survey’s findings regarding suicide.
“The key findings were that about one in eight, or 13%, of respondents had had some kind of suicidal thought during their lifetime, 4% had made a suicide plan and 3% had made a suicide attempt,” said Professor Burgess.
Of those with suicidal thoughts, nearly 70% had sought treatment from health professionals.
Professor Wayne Hall, who had worked on the original survey conducted in 1997, said that this latest survey’s inclusion of alcohol and drug misuse was an ‘important victory’ that recognised the co-occurrence of substance abuse and mental health problems.
He said that integrating treatment of people with both substance misuse issues and mental health disorders remained a ‘challenge for government’.
“One of the problems is they're a very different culture in approaching the two and the fact that people involved in each type of service are not often well trained in dealing with the other sorts of problems,” said Professor Hall.
Professor Whiteford said the survey offered several important messages for government.
“We haven't done enough about educating the community about the nature of mental disorders, what symptoms make them up and what treatments are available.
“The second thing … is that these disorders remain highly co-morbid, that is they co-exist with each other … We need to treat the whole person, not just their mental health symptoms or their physical health symptoms.
And there's an economic message here that these disorders are disabling -- if people have a mental disorder and they are in the workplace they often don't function as well …with effective treatments we can get rid of the symptoms which cause that disability.”
You can listen to the interview or read its full transcript here.
More information
Professor Harvey Whiteford
Professor Philip Burgess
Professor Wayne Hall
Vanessa Mannix Coppard (Communications), T: 042 420 7771
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