Page 4155 - Week 12 - Thursday, 1 December 2022
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The health of a young person can influence how likely they are to achieve better education outcomes, make a successful transition into full-time work, develop healthy adult lifestyles and experience fewer family challenges in the long term. We also know that mental health challenges often begin during childhood or adolescence, with 50 per cent of all mental health conditions arising before the age of 14 and 75 per cent before the age of 25. If left untreated, these can lead to poor mental health outcomes into adulthood.
Adolescents are highly vulnerable to mental health experiences due to their developmental stage, social and emotional development, risk taking, peer engagement and the stigma associated with help-seeking. Globally, it is estimated that one in seven 10- to 19-year-olds experience a mental health condition which largely remains unrecognised and untreated. Of course, suicide is the leading cause of death among young Australians aged 15 to 24.
That is why youth mental health is a key priority committed to and outlined in the bilateral agreement on mental health and suicide prevention between the ACT and commonwealth governments. In early 2020, the government recognised the potential impact that COVID-19 would have on young people. We had seen early indicators of the impact of COVID on some young people and knew that significant and innovative evidence-based approaches were needed.
All of this is why ACT Labor’s first formal health policy commitment in the 2020 election focused on young people’s mental health—across the board but particularly for those with complex comorbidities. ACT Labor went to the election with a significant and ambitious youth mental health package to support young Canberrans, a package based on evidence, engagement and a focus on providing support to Canberrans when and where people need it.
We are committed to partnering with national leaders in youth mental health Orygen Youth Health, and to roll out its evidence-based moderated online social therapy, or MOST, platform. This is a ground-breaking platform specifically designed to empower young people in the management of their mental health and wellbeing. It is available for people between the ages of 12 and 25 and has been created over the last 10 years by a team of leading youth mental health experts and by young people with lived experience of mental ill health.
MOST connects young people with personalised, proven and effective support when they want it, wherever they are, on any device. It can provide extra support alongside face-to-face care and help young people through their journey to recovery. It offers access to self-directed therapeutic content, a safe, moderated online community, peer workers, careers counselling, and one-on-one clinical support. It offers young Australians real people to talk to, and gives them some helpful, tailored information and practical tools that they can work through in their own time and space.
The ACT government funded this commitment through the 2021-22 budget as part of an $8.5 million package to support community mental health. This package also delivered on another element of our youth mental health package in expanding CatholicCare’s Youth and Wellbeing program.
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