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GO BACKReal stories and practical tips to help you through uni life ❤️
Starting or continuing university can be exciting, but it can also bring challenges. It can be helpful to have a pen and paper or open the notes app on your phone as you go.
To kick us off, it’s worth having some personal reflection time to figure out why we’re here. There is no wrong or right answer, so have a crack at considering the following questions:
What do I hope to get out of this training?
Do I think it’s important to talk about mental health? Why or why not?
How can having a better understanding of mental health and the supports available to me impact my wellbeing?
batyr’s ‘why’ is very simple. In 2022, the ABS released a study on mental health in Australia, which found that nearly40% (or 2 in 5) of young peopleaged 16-24 had a mental health disorder in the past 12 months. Given the scale and number of events we've faced globally in recent years, perhaps these statistics are no surprise - it’s not an exaggeration to say that it can feel very challenging to be a young person in today’s world.
But we know that mental health has been an increasing concern for a number of years, with the ABS reporting in 2019 that in an average-sized school classroom,7 young people will have a significant mental health condition at any given time.
Help-seeking is the process of recognising a need and taking action to gain support for mental health and wellbeing. It can take several forms:
It can be influenced by factors such as stigma, mental health literacy, previous experiences, access to services, and cultural or systemic barriers.
Mental health stigma stops young people from speaking up and reaching out for support. Through storytelling, we inspire young people to take charge of their mental health early and often – because the right support at the right time can prevent a crisis.
Despite what we know about the current mental health experiences of Australian youth, the national help-seeking rate for 16-24 year olds is only 22%.
These numbers are not meant to instil fear or cause overwhelm, but if we hope to see a shift in them, we can’t shy away from what might feel heavy. Only then can we begin to see a positive shift in the mental health conversation.
This module will help us understand how we can be a part of that change.
To better understand the diversity of mental health experiences, we need to take a look at what some of the language we hear about mental health is actually referring to. Understanding the differences can help us build our understanding of experiences, and better articulate the role mental health plays in our lives and communities. Click on the terms below to see what we mean by each concept!
An overarching term to refer to the mental state and experiences of an individual.
This is something we all have! When we talk about “mental health” we are speaking to the diverse range of experiences across someone's day, week, lifetime. This is the overarching concept we use to describe our mental and emotional state, the things that impact it, and how we navigate it.
An experience of mental health that reduces our capacity to cope, navigate or experience life.
This concept in particular is speaking to the explicit, negatively associated experiences of our mental health. This is a state we may find ourselves transitioning in and out of depending on a variety of factors relating to stress, responsibilities, discrimination, access to support, and more.
A range of clinically diagnosable mental health conditions that affect a person's mood, thoughts and behaviours.
The main point of difference between mental ill-health and a mental illness is that a mental illness is a clinically diagnosed condition given by a medical professional. Whilst we may all experience mental ill-health at some point in our lives, not everyone will meet the criteria for a mental illness (but this doesn’t change the validity of our experiences!)
