Mental Health

SYLLABUS CONTENT

What key issues affect the health of young people and how can they protect and promote good health?

Research ONE health-related issue for young people

Including:

What is the nature of the issue?
What does the data tell us?
Why is this an issue?
What are the protective factors to prevent the issue?
What strategies are currently in place to improve the health of young people?
What new strategies would be most effective to improve young people’s health?
What further research questions could be explored to build understanding and advocacy?

Although the syllabus points above can seem overwhelming, our success criteria is to explore the following:

Nature and extent: What is the health condition, and what are the key statistics?
Risk and protective factors: What factors increase our risk or help protect us from this condition?
Determinants impacting the condition: Why is this condition so impactful, and what factors contribute to its prevalence and severity?
Strategies to fix the issue: How do individuals, communities, and governments work to combat this condition?

What Does Nature and Extent Mean?

Nature - Refers to describing the key characteristics of the issue itself, as well as how it manifests, e.g. suicide, depression, anxiety.

Extent - This part focuses on how widespread and impactful these issues are. It includes statistics/trends on prevalence, incidence, mortality etc.

Nature: What is the condition

Mental health is a state of mental well-being that enables individuals to cope with the stresses of life, realize their abilities, learn effectively, work well, and contribute to their communities (WHO). However, defining mental health can be a complex and dynamic task due to its ever-changing nature. Mental health is not a fixed state but rather a continuum, as explained by Mind Matters (2014). Our position on this continuum fluctuates depending on various circumstances, including our state of mind each day and the challenges we face. At one end of the continuum is a positive state of mental health, and as we move along, our level of disorder can shift based on life experiences at any given time.

Mental health disorders, in contrast, describe a clinically recognized set of symptoms or behaviors that may cause distress and impairment, often persisting for extended periods. These disorders are diagnosed by medical professionals using established criteria and clinical diagnosis (Mind Matters, 2014).

According to the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare (AIHW), three of the leading causes of total disease burden among young Australians aged 15–24 were:

Anxiety
Depression
Suicide and self-harm

Nature

Research and define the following mental health issues:

Anxiety
Depression
Suicide and self-harm

https://www.beyondblue.org.au/

Extent

Using Canva or Piktochart, create an infographic highlighting the key statistics/trends around mental health and young people. It's important to choose data sets that are relevant and that you can use as supportive evidence within an essay response. An example from last years class is seen in the photo (Note, their task was on Australia as a whole, not specifiically youth).

Below are handy links to source your data. Although one report is from 2021, it contains data from the most recent major national survey:

2021 Youth and Mental illness

https://www.aihw.gov.au/reports/children-youth/mental-illness

2024 AIHW Youth Report

https://www.aihw.gov.au/reports/children-youth/health-of-young-people

WRITING TASK - RESPONSE WRITING

CUBE the following question. Then, use your verb sheet and ALARM matrix to formulate a response:

Outline the nature and extent of mental health amongst Australia's youth. 3 marks.

TIPS: Use your verb progression. Identify and define mental health, then outline they key statistical data highlighting the extent of the issue.

View the sample answer below and discuss as a class the strengths/weaknesses and the mark you would give it.

WRITING TASK - GLUE

Assess your response by applying the GLUE method. Highlight the following:

Green - Specific verb requirements/language
Pink - Links to the question
Orange - Syllabus-specific content
Yellow - Examples

Award yourself a mark out of 3.

Annotate what you did well and areas for improvement.

Why is This a Priority Issue?

Identifying priority health issues requires the government to use more than just epidemiology and statistics. Various factors must be considered:

Copy the checklist into your books, leaving space underneath each section for your justification. As a class we will brainstorm how/if mental health aligns with each area.

Risk and Protective Factors

As a class read through page 98 of the textbook, then identify a range of risk/protective factors influencing mental health.

Determinants of Health

Mental health is shaped by various factors, including environmental, sociocultural, socioeconomic, and individual (health behaviors and biomedical) determinants. These factors influence how we experience, manage, and respond to mental health challenges in everyday life.

Within your groups, you will be assigned one determinant of health. Use the provided template to conduct a brain dump, outlining how this determinant influences mental health. You will present your ideas to the class.

What strategies are currently in place to improve the health of young people?

This is a broad and diverse question with numerous entities responsible for health promotion at an individual, community and government level. Before we can effectively explore this we must first understand a critical health promotion framework called the Ottawa Charter. This concept is positioned later in the syllabus, but I think it is important here!

Memory Tool:

Build

Something

Really

Cool

Dude

Health Promotion and The Ottawa Charter

Health promotion refers to the process of enabling people to increase control over and improve their health. It involves actions and strategies aimed at promoting health and preventing illness through education, empowerment, and support for healthier environments and behaviors.

The Ottawa Charter for Health Promotion (1986) provides a framework for effective health promotion, outlining key strategies and action areas. These are designed to guide efforts in improving health outcomes for individuals and communities. The five action areas of the Ottawa Charter are:

Building Healthy Public Policy
Creating Supportive Environments
Strengthening Community Actions
Developing Personal Skills
Reorienting Health Services

Ottawa Charter Puzzle

The Ottawa Charter is embedded in lots of health promotion initiatives.

I will separate the board into the five action areas. As a class you will receive a variety health service pictures. You must work together to separate these into the correct action area. It is important to note, that many strategies often align with numerous action areas.

Important Note!! The Ottawa charter is a very common essay question used within Preliminary and HSC exams. Below is an example question from the past. Throughout the next learning activity, you will create a body paragraph for each action area, eventually having a full essay prepared to use!

Sample Question

With reference to the five action areas of the Ottawa Charter, analyse the strategies are currently in place to improve the health of young people? 12 marks.

Developing Personal Skills

Developing Personal Skills focuses on education by enhancing health literacy, promoting protective factors, and improving decision-making and coping strategies to empower individuals to make healthier choices. This education should occur in schools, homes, workplaces, and communities, involving various organisations. For example, mental health programs in schools can equip students with skills to manage stress and build resilience.

Lifelong learning is essential, as personal skill development continues throughout life to address evolving health needs.

Mental Health Application/Example

Being able to apply real world examples of the Ottawa Charter in action is critical for success in HMS. For each action area, we will review the the Fifth National Mental Health and Suicide Prevention Plan, which is a multi-faceted nation wide health promotion initiative.

As a class we will break down the priority areas and analyse how the initiative encompasses each action area of the Ottawa Charter. We will complete the first one together (Note the verb progression):

Explain how the Fifth National Mental Health and Suicide Prevention Plan aims to develop personal skills.

https://www.mentalhealthcommission.gov.au/publications/fifth-national-mental-health-and-suicide-prevention-plan-2021-progress-report-4

Example Response:

Developing personal skills (Identify) focuses on education by enhancing health literacy, promoting protective factors, and improving decision making and coping strategies to empower individuals to make healthier choices (Describe). This is critical as education provides individuals with lifelong skills, positively impacting their ability to make informed health decisions, reducing the chance of chronic disease e.g. CVD (Explain). Suicide rates are two times as high for Indigenous Australian's when compared to Non-Indigenous. The National Mental Health and Suicide Prevention Plan aims to develop personal skills through their 'Priority Focus Area 4: Improving Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander mental health and suicide prevention'. The implementation of Aboriginal led health services ensures facilities are culturally relevant and mental health education is delivered in an impactful way (Example). Through training Indigenous leaders and professionals to deliver these programs, it also empowers communities with the skills and resources to continue educating future generations, promoting lifelong changes, for example specialist Indigenous medical centers. This may positively impact the inequitable mental health gap between Indigenous and Non-Indigenous populations.

Paragraph Scaffold:

Below is a scaffold you may choose to utilise to structure your paragraph. It includes:

Identify and describe the action area. What does creating supportive environments mean?
Explain why the action area is important/impact.
Explain how the National Mental Health Plan has met this action area. What strategies have they implemented to create a supportive environment. Use the breakdown I have given you, from the “What does it actually look like?” For example, they allocated more resources to regional areas, therefore removing barriers and promoting access. If you can utilise a statistic to further strengthen the importance of implementing these strategies, brilliant!
Analyse the implications. What may be the result of these strategies?

Ottawa Charter Paragraph Scaffold

Creating Supportive Environments

Creating supportive environments focuses on making healthier choices the easier, more accessible option. This involves designing physical, social, and cultural spaces that promote wellbeing, such as providing safe outdoor areas, healthier food options, and supportive communities. The goal is to remove barriers and encourage positive health behaviors.

Mental Health Application/Example

Creating supportive environments is evident within the following areas of the health campaign:

PRIORITY AREA 3: Coordinating treatment and supports for people with severe and complex mental illness:

Action 7 Governments will require PHNs and LHNs to prioritise coordinated treatment and supports for people with severe and complex mental illness at the regional level and reflect this in regional planning and service delivery.

What does that actually look like??

Governments have prioritised increasing mental health resources in regional areas, such as expanding Headspace centres and providing specialised outreach services. These outreach services, including mobile clinics, telehealth consultations, and community based interventions, ensure coordinated care for individuals with severe mental illness by delivering support directly to local communities. This makes mental health services more accessible and tailored to the specific needs of people in remote or underserved areas.

Add the next body paragraph to your essay: Explain how the Fifth National Mental Health and Suicide Prevention Plan aims to create supportive environments.

Strengthening Community Action

Strengthening community action focuses on empowering communities to take control of their health by involving them in the planning, delivery, and evaluation of health initiatives. It encourages collective efforts, collaboration, and the sharing of resources and knowledge, ensuring that health strategies are relevant, accessible, and sustainable within the community.

Community buy in is paramount to a successful health initiative, as it enhancers accountability, ownership and empowerement.

Mental Health Application/Example

Strengthening Community Action is evident within the following areas of the health campaign:

PRIORITY AREA 2: Suicide Prevention

Action 5 Governments will engage with local communities to develop suicide prevention actions as part of a joint regional mental health and suicide prevention plan.

What does that actually look like??

Strengthening community action is central to Action 5, where local suicide prevention programs engage community members in actively supporting one another. For example, Lifeline’s Community Suicide Prevention programs collaborate with local councils and organisations to raise awareness, provide training, and identify at-risk individuals. By involving the community in these efforts, the programs create a supportive environment, empowering individuals to both seek help and support others in their community.

Add the next body paragraph to your essay: Explain how the Fifth National Mental Health and Suicide Prevention Plan aims to strengthen community action.

Reorienting health services

Reorienting health services primarily aims to shift clinical health services from a curative focus to a preventative one. It involves creating a health system that prioritises prevention, early intervention, and holistic care, addressing physical, mental, social, and emotional well-being.

Mental Health Application/Example

Reorienting Health Services is evident within the following areas of the health campaign:

PRIORITY AREA 6: Reducing stigma and discrimination

Action 19 Governments will develop and implement training programs that build awareness of and knowledge about the impact of stigma and discrimination

What does that actually look like??

By educating the public about mental health and the impact of stigma, we are changing societal attitudes towards mental health. This helps people understand that mental health care is part of overall health care, which encourages individuals to seek help earlier and without fear of judgment. This reorients the health system to focus more on prevention and early intervention, rather than solely responding to crises or treating advanced mental health conditions.

Add the next body paragraph to your essay: Explain how the Fifth National Mental Health and Suicide Prevention Plan aims to reorient health services.

Building Healthy Public Policy

Building Healthy Public Policy involves the development of legislation, economic measures, health policies, taxation, and organisational changes that promote health. It requires all sectors to integrate health promotion into policy development, with each level of government working to implement laws and policies that improve health outcomes for individuals and communities.

Mental Health Application/Example

Building Healthy Public Policy is evident within the following areas of the health campaign:

PRIORITY AREA 7: Making safety and quality central to mental health service delivery

Action 21 Governments This action is about developing a national framework that guides the delivery of mental health services. It aims to ensure that mental health services are safe, high quality, and accessible, which directly supports public health policy by ensuring consistent standards across the country.

What does that actually look like?

Regulatory and consistent standards that services must abide by.
Regular monitoring and evaluation of services.
Nationwide consistency in the delivery of mental health care.

Add the next body paragraph to your essay: Explain how the Fifth National Mental Health and Suicide Prevention Plan aims to build healthy public policy.

Activity - Case Study

Read through the case study on page 105-106. Then complete the questions.

WRITING TASK - RESPONSE WRITING

CUBE the following question. Then, use your verb sheet and ALARM matrix to formulate a response:

With reference to the five action areas of the Ottawa Charter, analyse the strategies are currently in place to improve the health of young people? 12 marks.

TIPS: Combine all the key body paragraphs you created in the previous learning activity into a structured essay.

WRITING TASK - GLUE

Assess your response by applying the GLUE method. Highlight the following:

Green - Specific verb requirements/language
Pink - Links to the question
Orange - Syllabus-specific content
Yellow - Examples

Award yourself a mark out of 8.

Annotate what you did well and areas for improvement.

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