Mental Health In Australia

Mental health

Mental health incorporates our psychological, emotional and social well being. It affects many things such as the way we act, feel or think. Our mental health determines how we cope with stress, relate to others and the choices we chose to make. Mental health disorders are the most dominant cause of disability among many young Australians between the age of 15-24 years. Anxiety and depression affects 50% of Australian males and 32% of females. Young people with mental illness struggle to focus in school and end up being either jobless or are very physically unhealthy. People develop mental illness for various reasons but some reasons include individual attributes, school context, social factors, life events and situations and

lastly community and cultural factors. There are many Australian mental health campaigns which are created to effectively help people with mental problems, my two chosen campaigns are “mind matters” and “mental health begins with me.

Mind Matters: Mind matters is a mental health action for secondary schools, its goal is to advance the mental health and wellbeing of young people.

This campaign provides structure, support and guidance while also enabling each school to create their own mental health strategies to fit their own unique circumstances. Mind matters provides school staff with basic professional learning, this includes: face to face events, online resources, webinars and support. All content is based on school mental health and wellbeing. Mental health is a very comprehensive resource which has mental health benefits and assistance for the entire school community including students, staff, and families. Mind matters believes the best strategy for mental health is the one that stops the problem from arising in the first place. For this reason Mind matters helps promote positive health for younger people and aim to work throughout the whole school community to make sure mental health difficulties do not develop at an early age and help prevent this issue in their futures. All these factors fit into the ottawa charter which includes building a healthy public policy, creating a supportive environment, reorienting health services, developing personal skills and developing a strengthening

community.

Mental health begins with me: World mental health is a day for global mental health awareness, education and advocacy.

It is held annually on the 10th of october to raise awareness world wide. This year in Australia World mental health day has three main ambitions which are to encourage help seeking behaviour, reduce the stigma associated with mental health issues and to foster connectivity throughout communities. This campaign needs everyone to take personal ownership of their own wellbeing and mental health. Anyone can take part in this campaign as long as you are willing to improve your health. Mental health Australia is run by Mental health Australia. Mental health begins with me requires you to make a promise which you will keep and value, you then submit the promise you made to sustain a better mental health you are then required to share it with all your friends and family so that you raise awareness to this

issue.

“Mind matters” and “Mental health begins with me” both refer back to the
5 action areas in the ottawa charter which include, building a healthy public policy, creating a supportive environment, reorienting health services, developing personal skills and strengthening community.

Building a healthy public policy consists of building a Health promotion policy that combines diverse but complementary approaches including fiscal measures,legislation, organizational change and taxation, it also contributes to creating a safer, healthier, cleaner and more enjoyable environment. Mind matters provides students with online resources such as daily surveys and videos. They also provide students with face to face events, this makes it very easy for everyone to get involved. Mind matters is a free and easy campaign to sign up to as it is funded by the government and available to everyone in Australia. providing information and education for health and enhancing life skills so people are able to make and obtain healthier lifestyle choices, relates to the Ottawa Charter through developing personal skills. This is portrayed through the website Mind Matters as it gets younger children into healthy habits at a young age and makes them more aware of how important it is to sustain a healthy mind. The students will have much healthier futures as they are aware of the issue early on in their lives. Health promotion involves priority setting, decisions, planning strategies and implementation at a community level; this is known as strengthening community action. Strengthening community action is portrayed on the website Mind matters as it teaches students how to live healthy lifestyles while also making their own decisions. Due to the children working in groups they are capable of pushing and motivating each other while planning their own personal strategies which will work for themselves and fit their lifestyles.
Links between people and their environments constitutes the basis for a social and ecological approach to health is known as creating supportive environments. Creating supportive environments are a crucial part of improving health, as young people tend to copy what everyone else around them does. If people are able to create a supportive environment, educating children and promoting healthy mind sets from a young age, they will all grow up with the same perspective as one another on what having a healthy lifestyle is. Mind matters main goal is to encourage everyone in the environment to take care of each other and the environment in able to build a more sustainable future. Mind matters creates a very supportive environment throughout schools, as the staff and the students are able to connect and encourage each other to have better health. If the students are more aware of mental health issues and how they can be prevented from occurring they will pass it on to others outside of school, from family, to friends or possibly someone they may know suffering from mental health issues. Everybody needs support and encouragement in order to pursue a better lifestyle. We need to take care of each other, our natural environment and our community in order to build a stronger and healthier future.Individuals, community groups, health professionals, health service institutions and governments must work together toward a health care system that promotes good health; this is known as re-orientating health services. Mind matters works in schools, and most schools are provided with a school councillor. Mind matters further educates these councillors so that they are capable of helping students that may suffer from mental health issues and stop it from getting worse or even possibly reduce the problem within the student. They also place students in groups so that they are able to work together and be more interactive with their peers, this is a great strategy as it will help get their minds working and make the lesson more enjoyable.