If your mental health has ever been written off as ~puberty blues~, you’re probably not alone.

Young people’s mental health issues need to be taken more seriously, and better programs need to be put into place to address them, Mission Australia’s chief executive says.

For the first time in Mission Australia’s 15-year survey history, young people have ranked mental health among Australia’s top three national concerns in the group’s annual survey - behind “alcohol and drugs” and “equity and discrimination”.

22,000 Australians aged 15 - 19 completed the Mission Australia survey.

“If young people are telling us that they think this is one of the top three concerns facing the nation, then we should sit up and pay attention and we should think about whether we've got the right responses in place,” Mission Australia Chief Catherine Yeomans said.

“Let’s look at the issues that are facing right across the country and put in programs that are going to support young people.”

Savannah van der Veer, 19, says mental health among young people isn’t getting the genuine attention it deserves.

“People don't take you seriously like they just kind of assume that all children are kind of moody and unusual - they do strange things that don't make sense,” Savannah, who has managed her own depression and OCD for more than half her life, told Hack.

“I was really suffering and I didn't really know how to talk about it and I didn't really know that what was happening to me wasn't normal.”

Savannah says her treatment never really went anywhere.

“As I went through high school, I felt like I was kind of sort of collecting diagnoses and nothing was actually happening.”

The concern over mental health among young people has risen massively in recent years.

Compared to five years ago, this year's survey shows the proportion of young people ranking mental health as a top national concern has doubled.

Even compared to last year’s survey, only 14.9 per cent of young people surveyed said mental health was among Australia’s top three concerns; this year, 20.6 per cent ranked mental health in their top three.

For girls and young women, over a quarter said mental health was in their top three concerns; only 14.1 per cent of boys and young men said it was in theirs.

Lachlan Hodgson, 16, says young guys are just more likely to bottle those concerns up.

“Boys try to tone it down a lot more than girls would. Holding it in is sort of like when you shake up a fizzy drink, isn't it?

“And at the end, it explodes, doesn't it? It's destructive but it seems like the safest thing to do until the can explodes.”

Teaching mental health in schools

Raising awareness of mental health needs to start at school, says Sam Refshuage - Chief Executive of mental health awareness organisation Batyr.

“We've really got to do something about what's happening and the impact that's happening for young people,” Sam said.

Over the past year, Batyr has run more than 150 mental health programs in Australian high schools. The programs are run by 18-30-year-olds and aim to give students context about mental health and tips to deal with mental illness. The sessions also include young speakers who share their lived experience with mental illness.

“What our programs are designed to do is to make it okay to not be okay,” Sam says, “To show young people that there are people out there like them who are suffering and going through tough times but that we can talk about it as a group.”

Sam says schools could be doing more to help students understand and cope with mental illness.

“I don’t think schools or the education department are doing enough, but that's not from a lack of trying.

“The schools are so stretched to achieve so much in such little time, and to [educate students about mental health] in a way that actually supports young people is very difficult.

“I think there’s power in community groups like Batyr showing support and delivering that message.”