‘Alarming’ rise in mental illness among young people faces ‘unprecedented’ challenges, experts warn

Generational inequality, uncontrolled social media, wage theft, insecure work and the climate crisis are causing a “dangerous” and “alarming” global increase in mental health among young people, an association of health professionals has warned.

There is an urgent need to address these driving factors and improve mental health treatments to reduce rates of premature death, disability and lost ability, all of which have increased over the past two decades. previous, research from The Lancet Psychiatry Commission on the mental health of young people found. .

Announced on Wednesday, the work was led by the executive director of the Orygen Center of Excellence in Youth Mental Health Australia, psychiatrist professor Patrick McGorry, who said “this is a serious problem of the health of the community we have”.

“If rapid deterioration of health were to occur in any other area of ​​health, such as diabetes or cancer, there would be drastic measures taken by governments,” he said. like that.

Although mental illness accounts for at least 45% of the total burden of disease in people aged 10 to 24, only 2% of global health budgets are allocated to mental health care. mental health, the report found.

The report said that even in the richest countries, less than half of the demand is being met.

There is a “community with different views that often reflects young people and their needs”, McGorry said.

“But we see a great division of society, which is really caused by the economic theory that we work under neoliberalism, where everything is property,” he said.

This global pressure of privatization and competition is destroying social ties, destroying social welfare and services and empowering dangerous industries and organizations, he said.

McGorry said: “It may seem that previous generations had a harder time, given the Great Depression, world wars and nuclear threats.” But in fact, there is less security and hope for the future around the current generation than ever before. The problems facing today’s youth are unprecedented, overwhelming and worse than ever before.”

He said that in many countries, the median house price is several times the annual income. In addition, poorly regulated social media and digital platforms, which drive political polarization, leave young people feeling marginalized, McGorry said.

“There are a lot of dangerous things that happen on the platform that the technologists are responsible for, and it’s legal for them,” he said.

“It is not the youth who are the problem, or that we should stop them. We should do it [the digital environment] a safe place for us to be.”

A 23-year-old who advises Orygen on his teenage tricks, who only wanted to be known as Li, said he started watching pornography online when he was just 12 years old. and this had a lasting and damaging effect on his self-esteem. and body shape.

“There’s a lot of adult content on the Internet, and exposure to it is often unquestioned,” Li said.

“I felt that the Internet was a place where I could escape or connect with other people from all over the world who had similar experiences to me. “But instead I was exposed to uncontrollable, very bad things, and my parents’ generation doesn’t really understand.”

The commission’s paper, brought together by psychiatrists, psychologists, researchers and young people, explains how young people are the highest users of the Internet, often “always” on the Internet, and this has potential for harm and mental health risks.

Warning paper; “Mental illness, which has been a major health and social problem affecting the lives and future of young people for decades, has entered a dangerous situation”.

“[It] is a major threat to the lives and futures of young people, and alarming evidence suggests that its prevalence and impact are steadily increasing in many high-resource areas.”

An accompanying review led by King’s College London believes that most of the evidence supporting the commission’s report comes from high-income countries, which is a problem because 90% of children and young people live in low-income countries. and low-income and middle-income “with high levels of mental health burden”.

In low- and middle-income countries, the level of unmet need for mental health services can reach close to 100%, spokeswoman for the World Health Organization (WHO) Carla Drysdale said.

He said: “All countries, despite the lack of resources, can take measures to improve the prevention of mental health and care for young people.” He said building non-professional staff including school counselors, community workers and peers is very important.

“WHO supports countries’ efforts to build mental health care for young people, reorganizing services and care pathways in ways that make them accessible.”

Suicide is the leading cause of death among 15 to 44 year olds in Australia, 15 to 19 year olds in New Zealand, and 15 to 39 year olds in India.

A child and adolescent psychiatrist not involved in the commission’s report, Dr Paul Denborough, described the Lancet paper as “blatant, in that a society where there is great inequality and marginalization is very damaging”.

He said: “Government policies really don’t like young people.”

“Young people are aware of the injustice of the generations in the policies – they are saying; ‘You adults don’t say anything about us’”.

Denborough is the clinical director of headspace Australia, a free or low-cost service for young people aged 12 to 25.

Denborough says it is important to recognize the many problems that young people face and address the causes of that suffering, rather than calling young people mentally ill.

“Inequality, the lack of affordable housing, job insecurity and the policies that drive those things are often the root cause,” he said.

“If society doesn’t apply a lens of intergenerational justice to what it’s doing and dealing with the causes, then you’re just Band-Aiding the problem.”