Most Australians are more aware of mental health problems today and are more likely to have some daily experience of them, if only through an encounter with homeless people on city streets.
Not all homeless people have mental health problems, and not all people with mental health problems are homeless. Some mental illnesses are brought on by events such as family breakdown, unemployment and the loss of a loved one.
The figures for depression are staggering. On average one in five Australians will experience clinical depression at some point in a lifetime. In any one year around 1 million adults and 100,000 young people are living with depression.
Clinical depression now accounts for one-third of all mental illness, and is so wide-spread, and increasing at such a rate, that it is expected to be second only to heart disease as the major cause of death and disability in Australia within 20 years.
Drug use, including the use of marijuana, to say nothing of amphetamines, is increasingly recognised as a major cause of mental illness, especially among young people.
Eating disorders and serious depression are also recognised as mental illnesses. Some people are crippled by phobias, panic-attacks, or post-traumatic stress disorders. Although we are physically healthier than people have ever been before, levels of mental illness, not just awareness of it, seem to be increasing.
Mental illness from substance abuse makes up about one-quarter of all mental illnesses in Australia. Anxiety disorders like those described above make up another quarter. Eating disorders are often spoken about but they only make up 3% of the total, and schizophrenia, another high-profile illness, makes up 5%.
The Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission has recently published Not for Service, a report on the experience of mental illness. Many of the stories sufferers tell in this report are moving and sobering, and often characterised by heroic perseverance. A key finding of the report is that de-institutionalization has not been supported with a sufficient level of resources for community care.
There are signs that this situation is changing, with increased government funding for mental health reform. The Federal government has given more funds for the national depression initiative, Beyond Blue, and is working to establish a Youth Mental Health Foundation with the involvement of non-government organizations.
Agencies outside government have a leading part in caring for people with mental illness. Small community based groups such as David's Place in Elizabeth Bay Parish are particularly important in giving sufferers friendship and a sense of belonging.
Church agencies play a major role in this area, and my ambition would be to see us make a greater contribution, especially at the community level. Appropriate psychiatric and medical treatment is indispensable, but so too is the healing power of love.
