The story is the statistic: 1 in 3 of us have mental health challenges to overcome at some stage of our lives
August 8, 2011 
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The story is the statistic: 1 in 3 of us have mental health challenges to overcome at some stage of our lives.
I had been thinking over the weekend how best to introduce this post as I really wanted to express how important it is to reach out to others in our daily lives but a friend unknowingly provided the perfect link for me overnight.
Last week was a tough personal week in my family, nothing related to this post, nevertheless I endeavoured to keep it private only to receive a caring email from a friend overnight simply asking was I ok? My friend’s reason for asking was, I had a meeting to attend on Friday and unfortunately having sent someone else in my place she noticed it wasn’t like me not to let her know I wouldn’t be there.
My immediate reaction to her email was how thoughtful, someone just asking was I ok?
It doesn’t take much does it? But how often do we forget to think of someone else and just get caught up in our daily lives.
So with that introduction I’d like to grow our discussion on homelessness which is complex enough in itself and extend our thinking to mental health. We sometimes get lost in the statistics and stigma attached to mental health. But the story really is the statistics.
Mental illness in Australia is a large and complex problem. Nearly one in three Australians – an estimated 32 per cent of the population – will experience a mental illness at some stage in their lives.
When alcohol and drug disorders are included, this rises to a staggering 45 per cent. Mental illness is the single largest cause of disability in Australia.
Let’s move away from the faceless statistic for a moment:
Think about it – 1 in 3, that’s someone you know, it could be you, your partner, your children, your mother, father or siblings, your friends? All of the communication I have seen to date misses that critical point – this is an everyperson challenge and holistic strategies are critical to solving it.
That staggering statistic suggests that just about every family in some form is impacted with mental health issues somewhere in their family life and life journeys together. The challenge as we know is because of lack of funding to date and, the stigma attached to mental health is most of us don’t know where to go for support and simply soldier on…
The problem is so serious it is an everyperson problem. It needs to be discussed louder not just by health professionals for we as a community (everyday people) are the ones who can remove the stigma.
The Facts:
The impact of mental illness goes well beyond a person’s immediate health and wellbeing. Untreated mental illness can mean reduced employment, family breakdown, homelessness and suicide. And the burden extends beyond the individual to family and friends. Mental illness causes significant economic and social costs.
Analysis of the 2007 Australian Bureau of Statistics Survey of Mental Health and Well-Being shows that, each year more than 17 per cent or 3.8 million Australians experience diagnosable symptoms of mental illness, for either brief or extended periods.
Unlike many illnesses with a similar disease burden mental illness affects people across their lifetime – it affects children, teenagers, parents and older people.
For anxiety and affective disorders such as depression, two-thirds of people have their first symptoms before the age of 21 years. Mental illness accounts for 24 per cent of the burden of non-fatal disease and remains the biggest risk factor for suicide.
Around two million Australians with mental illness do not receive any mental health care. And it’s the most vulnerable – people in rural and regional areas, Indigenous Australians, men, young people and disadvantaged groups – who are among the least likely to seek treatment.
The challenges are many. Mental health is a complex system of treatment, care and support, requiring the engagement of multiple areas of government (health, housing, income support, disability, education and employment).
The good news is at least a quarter of mental health problems in adults are potentially preventable through treatment, support and others factors during childhood and early adolescence, such as being in a supportive, positive environment.
Additionally, short term psychological therapies such as cognitive behaviour therapy are internationally recognised to reduce the impact and duration of common mental illness of mild to moderate severity. Such therapies present an alternative or, for some, an effective adjunct, to pharmaceutical management.
The challenge remains to provide the right mix and level of mental health services when people need them, and to remove the barriers and stigma that prevent people with mental illness, their carers and families from asking for help.
New Study Alerts church to important role they must play in de-stigmatising mental health within their communities
In a previous post I discussed briefly the role of the church in helping de-stigmatise mental health issues which I raised after a conversation I had recently with a young pastor.
I was sharing the facts with her surrounding mental health awareness and the need for the church to discuss it more openly with their respective congregations. She rightly pointed out much work is done in pastoral care but that is not the only role the church must play.
There is a real need for the church to work towards de-stigmatising mental health issues so that those sitting in pews struggling are able to ask for the help they need without fear of the stigma.
The study shows that while families with a member who has mental illness have less involvement in faith practices, they would like their congregation to provide assistance with those issues.
However, the rest of the church community seemed to overlook their need entirely. In fact, the study found that while help from the church with depression and mental illness was the second priority of families with mental illness, it ranked 42nd on the list of requests from families that did not have a family member with mental illness.
“The difference in response is staggering, especially given the picture of distress painted by the data: families with mental illness reported twice as many problems and tended to ask for assistance with more immediate or crisis needs compared to other families,” said study co-author Dr. Matthew Stanford, professor of psychology and neuroscience at Baylor, who is an expert in mental illness and the church. “The data give the impression that mental illness, while prevalent within a congregation, is also nearly invisible.”
The study appears on-line in the journal Mental Health, Religion and Culture, and is the first study to look at how mental illness of a family member influences an individual’s relationship with the church.
The Baylor researchers surveyed nearly 6,000 participants in 24 churches representing four Protestant denominations about their family’s stresses, strengths, faith practices and desires for assistance from the congregation.
The results showed mental illness in 27 percent of families, with those families reporting double the number of stressors, such as financial strain and problems balancing work and family. Families with mental illness also scored lower on measures of family strength and faith practices, and analysis of desires for assistance found that help with mental illness was a priority for those families affected by it, but virtually ignored by others in the congregation.
“Families with mental illness stand to benefit from their involvement within a congregation, but our findings suggest that faith communities fail to adequately engage these families because they lack awareness of the issues and understanding of the important ways that they can help,” said study co-author Dr. Diana Garland, dean of Baylor’s School of Social Work.
“Mental illness is not only prevalent in church communities, but is accompanied by significant distress that often goes unnoticed. Partnerships between mental health providers and congregations may help to raise awareness in the church community and simultaneously offer assistance to struggling families.”
So where am I going with all of this. Remember I shared this was an everyperson problem. Reach out to someone and ask them are they ok? Be thoughtful enough to take the time to pick up the phone and chat to someone, share a cup of tea, go for a walk with them. There is nothing healthier than getting close to nature.
The facts are that with mental health issues affecting so, so many, it doesn’t make sense to attach stigma to sharing any issue with mental health. And it is about reaching out to someone and saying: are you ok? Feel like a cuppa. The vital role of human connection and empathy is just one of the important tools in addressing this complex issue.
Note: for help:
