Mental Health Week

Mental Health Week is an initiative recognised all over Australia. This year the week will take place between the 10th and 18th of October 2021. The week recognises the social detriments of mental health across our communities and brings awareness and attention on how to safeguard our loved one’s mental health. This is especially in focus this year given the COVID-19 pandemic crisis. We want Mental Health Week to build supportive communities, take a holistic view on mental health, share ideas, and learn from each other.

This initiative was founded by the Mental Health Foundation of Australia to advocate for and raise awareness of Australian mental health. Statistics for 2021 have shown that between 16 March 2020 and 25 April 2021, over 15 million Medicare Billing Scheme subsidised mental-health related services were processed. Medical services dealing with mental health were provided via either telephone or videoconference. This peaked during the COVID-19 crisis. The volume of mental health related PBS prescriptions also increased during this period, and these patterns were observed over all jurisdictions. In April 2021, Lifeline received almost 82,000 calls, Kid Helpline received almost 26,000 answerable calls, Beyond Blue received 22,000 contacts, and number of suspected or confirmed deaths by suicide in Australia were that similar to 2019. These statistics are unfortunately much higher than previous years, and this is concerning.

This week aims to bring Australian communities together, raise awareness, and promote better mental health for all. It is a time for those who are struggling to speak out and know that it is okay to seek help when one is mentally down. We need to normalise this behaviour.

This year the national theme is ‘Mental Health: Post Pandemic Recovery Challenges and Resilience’. The focus is on raising awareness about mental health in different industries. Every industry has its own challenges due to the pandemic, and we want to be able to personalise the mental health week to each industry and business. This theme will give us an opportunity to embrace many different community groups and people of all ages who are on the path to recovery and fostering resilience.

There will be various events happening throughout Australia in October 2021, including talks, physical activities, and events. Make sure you get involved to see how people around you experience difficulties with mental health differently, and you may even learn something for yourself as well. To find out more about Mental Health visit: www.mhfa.org.au