A new survey of 24,055 young Australians has identified mental health as the most important issue in the nation

This article is more than 2 years old

This article is more than 2 years old

Tykara Lang sought refuge when her classmates ran outside to play.

Most days it was the library or the school staffroom where she sat in silence, willing the lunch break to pass without approach.

A girl of just nine, Lang was suffering serious mental health issues. She had already been diagnosed with anxiety and depression.

The teasing was relentless and Lang’s striking red hair did little to help her blend in.

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In her darkest moments, she could see no way out of that primary school library in Sydney’s eastern suburbs. Nor did she want to.

“When you’re in such a spiral, that sadness is pretty much all you have,” Lang said. “To be quite honest, probably for a long time I didn’t want to help myself.

“I wanted to be in this bubble where no one could touch me. I wanted to live this life of complete isolation.”

Lang was helped through her childhood by a child psychologist but said she began to see gaps in the mental health system through her teenage years.

Now 19, she has become an advocate for youth mental health and says more needs to be done to support young Australians and build the support skills of families and friends.

Lang is far from alone.

A new survey of 24,055 young Australians, released today by Mission Australia, shows mental health has been identified as the most important issue in the nation. It is the first time mental health has topped the list.

Facebook Twitter Pinterest ‘I have found my little passion’: youth mental health advocate Tykara Lang.

About one-third of young people (33.7%) recorded mental health as the most important issue in Australia, doubling from 14.9% in 2015.

The Mission Australia chief executive, James Toomey, said the results showed the need for a comprehensive, coordinated and cohesive national response to youth mental health.

That included greater investment in universal mental health programs in schools and more funding for community-based mental health services, he said.

It also requires giving families and friends the skills to be able to help support young people with mental health issues.

“This report tells us that many young people facing challenges reach out to friends and family for support,” Toomey said. “I can tell you from experience that family members and friends need to know how to navigate the bewildering variety of services and information sources that are available, and be provided with targeted information about ‘mental health first aid’ and other practical supports that exist.”

Earlier this year, a joint report produced by the Black Dog Institute and Mission Australia showed one in four Australian teenagers met the criteria for experiencing a “probable serious mental illness”.

A 2015 government-funded study found almost one in seven (13.9%) of four to 17-year-olds had experienced a mental disorder in the past 12 months, the equivalent of roughly 560,000 Australian children and adolescents.

Experts remain concerned at the lack of services available for young people experiencing mental health problems.

Youth mental health expert and former Australian of the year Patrick McGorry last week said youth mental health services were “threadbare” and a “wasteland” in the most populous states.

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Funding for youth mental health in the public health system had declined at a time when it ought to be increased.

“We don’t have a youth mental health system,” McGorry told the ABC. “We’ve got a child and adolescent system and then an adult system, in which the young people fall right into a huge gulf.”

McGorry has long campaigned for stronger and early intervention and helped set up Headspace, which has 100 youth mental health centres across the country.

But he said core investment for Headspace was falling and it needed to be better linked to high schools and more expertise to treat more complex cases.

“If it was some form of cancer affecting young people, or a serious physical illness, we’d see quite a different approach.”

Lang counts herself lucky. Despite developing an eating disorder, experiencing homelessness, living in a youth refuge and suffering a catastrophic relapse, she is now doing well.

Group therapy has been a huge help. She is in more secure housing, works and is preparing to study nursing.



“Within the past year-and-a-half, I’ve been doing so much more advocacy work in the public health system,” she said. “That has helped me. I have found my little passion and it’s beautiful.”