Understanding Mental Illness

Editor: Justin Healey
ISBN 978 1 921507 13 7
Year 2010

Price: $20.95

  

Understanding Mental Illness
Volume 303, Issues in Society

Mental health is a state of emotional and social wellbeing which infl uences how we cope with the stresses of everyday life and whether or not we can achieve our potential. Mental disorders are broken down into three groups: anxiety, mood and substance use disorders. According to a major 2007 survey, 45% of Australians aged 16-85 years (7.3 million people) experienced at some point in their lifetime a mental disorder. This book explores the prevalence of mental disorders and the services available for treatment. It also focuses on improving community understanding of the negative effects of mental illness on individuals such as reduced work participation, social isolation, stigma and discrimination. So many among us experience mental illness – are we doing enough to understand its causes, and manage its many social, health and economic impacts?

Glossary; Fast Facts; Web Links; Index



fast facts
FAST FACTS from this volume
  • 45% of Australians aged between 16 and 85 years suffered from one or more anxiety, mood, or substance use disorder in 2007.
  • The economic impact of mental health problems is up to $20 billion each year in Australia.
  • Men were more prone to mental health problems because they were more likely to be be substance users.
  • Young people are more likely sufferers, with the highest reporting age groups amongst men between 16-34 years and 16-24 years for women.
  • In 2007, anxiety disorders were the most common mental disorders, affecting 14% of all people aged 16-85 years in the 12 months prior to the survey. Women were more likely to have experienced anxiety disorders than men (18% and 11% respectively). Anxiety disorders were more common in women aged 16-54 years (21%) compared with older women aged 65-85 years (6.3%).
  • Mood disorders (affective disorders), such as depression, dysthymia and bipolar affective disorder, affected 6.2% of people aged 16-85 years (7.1% of women and 5.3% of men). The rate was higher for those aged 16-44 years (7.6%) than it was for those aged 55-85 years (3.3%).
  • Substance use disorders, involving harmful use of, or dependency on, alcohol or other drugs, were slightly less prevalent than other types of mental disorders, affecting 5.1% of people aged 16-85 years. Substance use disorders were more common in men (7.0%) than in women (3.3%). Substance use disorders were more likely for those aged 16-24 years (13%) than for other age groups, and were the most prevalent disorders for males of this age (15%).
  • Of all people with a mental disorder in 2007, just over one-fifth (21%) had a severe disorder, one-third (33%) had a moderate disorder and just under half (46%) had a mild disorder.
  • People with a mental illness may have more than one disorder at any one time. This is known as comorbidity. The disorders may or may not be from the same group of mental health disorders. Having multiple mental disorders is associated with greater impairment, higher risk of suicidal behaviour and greater use of health services.
  • In 2007, 38% of all people with a mental illness (or 1.2 million people) had two or more mental disorders. A mix of mood and anxiety disorders was the most common combination, making up 39% of all comorbidity cases (472,000 people). People with more than one anxiety disorder made up a further 27% (331,000 people).
  • People with a mental illness are more likely than those without to have physical conditions, such as back or neck pain/problems, asthma or heart trouble, further compounding the difficulties they face.
  • In 2007, nearly two-thirds (65%) of people with a mental disorder had not used services for their mental health problems in the 12 months before the survey. Most (86%) of those people who did not access any services said that they had no need for any type of assistance.
  • In 2007, there were about 872,000 people who had a mental health disorder and felt they had an unmet need for assistance (including 288,000 people with a mental illness who did not use services but who felt they had one or more unmet needs). The most common type of perceived unmet need was for counselling (16% of all people with a mental health disorder), followed by information (14%) and social intervention (12%), which includes help to sort out practical issues, such as money or housing, or help to meet people for support or company.
  • The prevalence of mental disorders declines with age from more than one in four (26.4%) in the youngest age group (16-24 years) to around one in twenty (5.9%) in the oldest age group (75-85 years).
  • A number of other social factors were strongly associated with having mental disorders in the previous 12 months, including not being married or in a defacto relationship, level of education and not being in the labour force.
  • At some point in their lifetime, over 2.1 million Australians aged 16-85 years had serious thoughts about taking their own life; over 600,000 made a suicide plan; and over 500,000 attempted suicide.
  • 26% of people aged 16 to 24 – about 650,000 people – suffered mental illnesses last year. Anxiety problems including panic attacks, obsessive compulsive disorder and post-traumatic stress were the most common with 15% of young people affected. Around 13% suffered conditions related to dependency on alcohol or other drugs such as sleeping pills, amphetamines and heroin. A further 7% had mood illnesses such as depression and bipolar.
  • The Child and Adolescent Component of the National Survey on Mental Health and Wellbeing recorded that 14% of Australian children and adolescents aged 4-17 experience mental health problems. Many of these are serious mental illnesses that interfere with the child or adolescent’s everyday life.
  • Mental health problems such as depression, anorexia, schizophrenia and bipolar disorder are increasingly being diagnosed in adolescents and younger children.
  • Three out of four people with a mental illness report that they have experienced stigma.
  • A 2006 Australian study found nearly one quarter of people surveyed felt depression was a sign of personal weakness and would not employ a person with depression, around a third would not vote for a politician with depression and 42% thought people with depression unpredictable. One in five surveyed reported that if they had depression they would not tell anyone. The stigmatising attitudes were much higher towards people with schizophrenia. Nearly two thirds of people surveyed thought people with schizophrenia unpredictable and one quarter felt that they were dangerous.
  • Research has shown that people receiving treatment for a mental illness are no more violent or dangerous than the rest of the population. People with a mental illness are more likely to harm themselves – or to be harmed – than they are to hurt other people. A person with schizophrenia is around 2,000 times more likely to commit suicide than they are to harm someone else.
  • The majority of people with a mental illness, including those with severe mental illness, do not commit crimes – although in Australia, people with a mental illness are over-represented in the criminal justice system.
  • Research shows that people with severe mental illness are more than 11 times more likely to be victims of a violent crime than the general population.