Editorial: Action on youth mental health vital

The COVID-19 pandemic has caused much tragedy, sadness and challenges over the past two years.

But its massive impact on people’s mental health is what has been dubbed the “shadow pandemic”. It’s a problem that is growing in Australia, and WA could be yet to face the worst of it when the virus takes hold in the State.

Mental health expert Patrick McGorry said in an editorial in The Medical Journal of Australia this week, that predictions the sector had made of a big increase in mental health issues as a result of COVID-19 had come true, with a 25 per cent global increase in anxiety and depression during 2020.

“The under-resourced mental health system has been overwhelmed in Australia, with general practices and headspaces inundated, emergency departments flooded with demand, and the mental health workforce dwindling and exhausted,” he wrote.

Sadly the mental health of children and young people may be among the most affected by the pandemic’s damaging impacts.

Their lives may have turned upside down during their developmental years, as they are confronted with catching the virus, social restrictions and upheaval, wearing masks and having to quarantine.

In a pre-Budget submission, Professor McGorry, who is the executive director of Orygen, said: “Tens of thousands of young people in Australia are currently falling through the gaps”.

The 2010 Australian of the Year said an extra $704 million was needed over the next four years for more funding of targeted youth mental health services.

Professor McGorry, who will be in Canberra this week, has also called for university fees to be wiped for mental health-related degrees to combat a workforce shortage.

Professor McGorry is right and his plea must be heeded by the Morrison Government.

We have reported on many of the issues facing WA families of children and young people with mental health issues in this newspaper.

Children have waited days in emergency departments for mental health services, with some eventually being sent home rather than admitted.

There have been huge rises in the number of children presenting to EDs with self-harm, and children being unwell enough to be involuntarily detained in hospital.

We reported in 2020 that the average age of suicidal children presenting to Perth Children’s Hospital was just 13-14.

Shockingly, up to 12 children as young as five attempted suicide in Australia in the first six months of last year.

Last year we revealed that more than 81,000 prescriptions for antidepressants were being given to WA children every year — a number that soared by 61 per cent over four years.

The number of WA children suffering eating disorders has skyrocketed since the start of the pandemic. Last year there was an 80 per cent spike in cases, sparking a specialist hospital bed shortage.

If ever there was a time to invest more, and invest properly, in youth mental health services, it is now. We owe it to the next generation.