Mental health needs to be treated as a national priority.
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It is destroying lives and has a profound and enduring impact on families, loved ones and society as a whole.
One-in-three Australians will experience a mental health issue in their lifetime.
Suicide is the biggest killer of young Australians and accounts for the deaths of more young people than car accidents.
In fact, Australians are more likely to die by suicide than skin cancer.
Mental illnesses are common and highly disabling. In any one year, one-in-five adult Australians and one-in-seven children aged 4 to 17, will experience some form of mental illness. One in three Australians will have a mental illness in their lifetime.
· Mental illness impacts severely on a person’s capacity to work, to earn a living and to maintain close relationships.
· A quarter of Australians aged 16-24 are experiencing a mental illness at any given time. Many people who live with mental illness first experience symptoms during adolescence.
· Suicide rates are unacceptably high, with more than 3000 Australians taking their own life each year.
· Men are at greatest risk of suicide but least likely to seek help.
· In any one year, around one million Australian adults have depression, and over two million have anxiety. Depression has the third highest burden of all diseases in Australia.
· Indigenous Australians experience much higher rates of psychological distress than the general population, and lower access to mental health services.
· LGBTIQA+ people experience very high rates of depression and psychological distress and are the most at-risk group in Australia for suicide.
· Women are more likely to experience depression and anxiety during pregnancy and the year following birth.
To enter, nominees must provide a CV and 200 words outlining the work being undertaken and how it is making an impact.
Nomination forms can be obtained from: http://australianmentalhealthprize.org.au/
Entries close on August 31, 2017.
Six finalists will be chosen with the winner being announced in November.