Research shows that almost half of all Australians who face mental health disorders receive little to no treatment, despite the existence of effective treatments.
A new study, backed by the National Health and Medical Research Council, looked at some of the barriers preventing access to mental health services, specifically for children.
The study’s lead author, professor Harriet Hiscock from the Murdoch Children's Institute, said most children with mental health issues do not receive the support they need.
"We looked at a sample of close to 5000 children, and looked at whether they had mental health difficulties. And if they did, what services or supports they got through Medicare. And what we found was that the vast majority of children that did have mental health problems were not getting the mental health services that they needed," said professor Hiscock.
What are the reasons
The study also discovered that 80 percent of children that exhibit high levels of mental health symptoms are getting zero help.
One of the main reasons for this, the study found, is that parents are often oblivious to their child’s mental health issues, with another being the cost of ongoing care. Other factors that might prevent young Australians from seeking help are gender, age and family background.
"Particularly girls were less likely to receive care than boys. Younger children were less likely than older children to access services, and families from non-English speaking backgrounds were also less likely to get help compared to families of children who spoke English," adds professor Hiscock.
Mental Health Source: Supplied
Other barriers
Kids Helpline is a service that offers counselling to children via the phone or webcam.
According to Tony Fitzgerald, the manager of Kids Helpline, most of the children who reach out to the service are females, with another large groups being young people from a variety of ethnicities and cultural backgrounds.
"I think that supports the idea that those groups are potentially reaching out to services like Kids Help Line for support because they can't access those mental health services in their community for whatever reason," said Mr. Fitzgerald.
Mr. Fitzgerald added that the service attracts young people who want to retain their anonymity.
‘’Certainly we have seen an increase over a number of years now from young people from culturally diverse backgrounds and we suspect that that's in part because they can relatively anonymously and confidentially contact our service rather than access the community based services where there may be stigma associated with help-seeking within their own culture."
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