Mental Health

Suicidal distress is a human response to overwhelming suffering. It is complex with many factors at play rather than a single isolated cause, including social determinants (such as income, education, employment, housing, early childhood development, social inclusion, and access to healthcare) and individual factors, including contextual factors (such as stressful life events, trauma and abuse, and discrimination), clinical factors (for example, mental illness, drug and alcohol use, chronic physical illness), personality factors, genetic factors and demographic factors (such as age, gender, sexual orientation, ethnicity, cultural heritage). It is often the impact of social determinants interacting with a person’s individual risk factors that leads to a person experiencing suicidal distress.

The key themes that emerged from interviews with approximately 3,000 people with lived and living experience of suicide included suicidal thoughts and behaviours tracing back to early life experiences of abuse, violence, trauma, family conflict or bereavement, as well as experiences with alcohol and other drug problems, discrimination and concurrent and complex life stressors closer in time to a suicide attempt.

The Australian Government’s Advice on the National Suicide Prevention Strategy recognises that most suicides are preventable and that a holistic and upstream approach is needed by addressing social and economic drivers like disadvantage, as well as better support for the mental health system.  This includes reducing the prevalence and impact of child abuse and family and sexual violence, bringing down unemployment, enhancing access to education and providing better support for families who have been impacted by suicide.

The Social Cohesion cause shows that communities in which people feel safe, healthy, economically secure and connected to others are associated with higher levels of wellbeing, lower levels of distress and lower suicide rates. Improving the community’s baseline wellbeing enhances opportunities to thrive and has a protective effect by ‘buffering’ the impact of suicidal risk factors.  This holistic approach has led the NSW government to enact the Suicide Prevention Bill 2025, placing suicide prevention at the centre of government decision-making and embedding accountability across agencies, including NSW Police.

The COVID pandemic’s disruption to work and social functioning has been linked with the changing mental health of many Australians, elevating symptoms of depression and anxiety and increasing the risk of stress, loneliness, depression, anxiety and self-harm.  

The HILDA Survey follows the lives of more than 17,000 Australians each year, over the course of their lifetime, collecting information on many aspects of life in Australia, including household and family relationships, income and employment, and health and education. During the COVID pandemic in 2021, HILDA found that 29 per cent of women and 23 per cent of men were in psychological distress, compared to 18 per cent and 15 per cent respectively in 2007. While psychological distress had risen across all age groups, the increase had been most significant in younger Australians with 42 per cent experiencing psychological distress, up from 18 per cent in 2011.

Today, five years after COVID, Australians are experiencing even higher levels of distress.

The 2024 Suicide Prevention Australia Community Tracker reports that 74 per cent of Australians are feeling elevated levels of distress beyond normal levels compared to the previous year due to: cost of living and personal debt (49 per cent); family and relationship breakdown (24 per cent); housing access and affordability (24 per cent); unemployment and job security (22 per cent); and social isolation and loneliness (22 per cent).  The top causes of elevated distress for young people (18-24 years) are similar with the addition of social media, self-image and bullying (38 per cent).

For people with mental health issues, the social stigma and discrimination they experience can make their problems worse and make it harder to recover, avoiding getting the help they need because of the fear of being stigmatised.  A 2022 national survey estimated that over four million Australians experienced mental health-related stigma and discrimination in the prior twelve months. Most commonly, this came from people close to them with one in three people reporting unfair treatment by family and friends, and one in four reporting unfair treatment by their spouse or partner. 

Experiences of discrimination in the workplace are also common, with one in three people reporting unfair treatment in the workplace.  Whilst over ninety per cent of employees believe mental health in the workplace is important, only half feel that their workplace is mentally healthy and that their most senior leader values mental health. Three-quarters of people feel uncomfortable telling their employer they are experiencing a mental illness.

When Australians do seek help, the mental health care service landscape is complex, under-resourced, and inconsistent.  The government’s National Mental Health Commission notes that the mental health system’s ability to provide effective care is not improving. The Productivity Commission concludes that ‘the mental health and suicide prevention system is fragmented and out of reach for many people’ and the National Mental Health and Suicide Prevention Agreement signed by all governments ‘has fundamental flaws, meaning it is not supporting progress towards a person-centred, integrated mental health and suicide prevention system’.

Mental health care services are provided in the private sector via the Medicare Benefits Schedule-subsidised system, utilising private health insurance rebates and patient contributions, among other funding streams. Non-government organisations (sometimes with state or federal government funding, for example, through Primary Health Networks and other departmental programs) also deliver ambulatory and residential mental-health-specific services. State and territory health and hospital services and private hospitals deliver both community and hospital-based services.  

There are significant shortages of all professions in the mental health workforce, especially in the public system.  SANE Australia called the mass resignation of psychiatrists in NSW public health in 2025 an ‘entirely predictable reflection of the fragile state of our mental health system. It highlights the broader issue of inadequate investment in mental health services and the urgent need for comprehensive reform’.The Australian Psychological Society’s Healthcare Index survey shows the severe pressure the mental health sector is under since the pandemic. Almost two-thirds of patients had to wait more than 12 weeks to receive care, and 1 in 3 psychologists were unable to see new clients due to heightened demand, an increase from 1 in 5 in June 2021.

The cost of living crisis has meant that nearly one in five Australians delayed seeing, or did not see any, mental health professional in the last months due to cost, a 60 per cent increase in three years.  

Leading mental health research organisation, Orygen, has pointed out that two million Australians are in the ‘missing middle’ whose needs are not being met by current mental health services. They are often too unwell for primary care, but not unwell enough for state-based services. They may have accessed services in the past year; however, these services were not able to deliver either the duration of care or the level of specialist care appropriate for more complex and serious mental ill-health.

The latest headspace National Youth Mental Health Survey found more than half of young people believe their mental health is getting worse, with one in four citing social media as the main reason for the decline. One in three young people is experiencing problematic social media use and would like to disconnect, but the fear of missing out is stopping them. 

The survey also found that over half of young people feel fearful of the future due to climate change, with one in five saying climate change is affecting their daily lives. The same proportion also identified financial instability and cost of living, including housing affordability. 

Bullying is linked to poor mental health, including an increased risk of developing depression and anxiety, and overall poorer psychological and emotional functioning. Bullying is also a risk factor for suicidal thoughts and behaviours, with bullied young people being almost 10 per cent more likely to consider suicide than non-bullied youth. A recent Australian study looking at risk profiles of adolescents who have been admitted to hospital for suicidal behaviour found that 60 per cent reported a history of bullying.

Bullying in Australian schools is a serious problem, with over one in five males and one in six females aged 8 to 18 years reporting being bullied at least once a week. Another source reports that approximately one in four Year 4 to Year 9 Australian students are being bullied every few weeks or more often. 

The internet and smartphones have only served to make online bullying ubiquitous.  According to Australia’s eSafety Commissioner, online bullying amongst children is reaching ‘concerning levels’ with cyber-bullying prevalent.  One in five young school students experiences online bullying in any one year, and one in two Australian young people has experienced some form of cyberbullying in their lifetime. With the march of artificial intelligence (AI), we have seen that generative AI makes it easier for people to bully others in ways that are fast, realistic, targeted and humiliating, intensifying the risk of children and young people being seriously harmed, including explicit AI-generated images.  

Enter Nova FM’s radio host Michael ‘Wippa’ Wipfli. In 2024, he and Rob Galluzzo founded the 36 Months campaign to raise the age Australians can access social media from 13 to 16 years, reflecting the mental health issues, cyberbullying, anxiety, depression, self-harm and suicide in Australian teenagers caused by social media, especially during the critical phase of psychological development - the 36 months between ages 13-16.  In only six months, the campaign gained bipartisan support and achieved a remarkable change in government policy.  On 29 November 2024, the Australian Parliament passed the Online Safety Amendment (Social Media Minimum Age) Bill 2024. The Bill sets 16 as the minimum age for social media access, requiring age-restricted social media platforms to take reasonable steps to prevent underage users from having social media accounts.  The ban on Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, Snapchat, X (Twitter), YouTube, Reddit, Twitch, Kick, and Threads for under 16s came into force on 10 December 2025.