October 10 is World Mental Health Day, and while the world is thankfully starting to do away with the idea that it’s shameful to talk about less than ideal mental health, we haven’t quite shifted the stigma entirely. With one in every five Australians affected by mental illness in some way, shape, or form, the chances are that if you aren’t living with a mental illness yourself, then you’re close to someone who is.
Even if there were only a handful of people taking their own lives each year it would be too many, but the real statistics are genuinely terrible. If you’re an Australian aged between 15 and 44, then suicide is statistically the most likely way for you to die.
Each and every year 3000 Australians will die by suicide, and a further 70,000 will survive an attempt. That’s a little bit over eight people losing their life every single day, and about 192 more people attempting.
A couple of days ago, Scott Morrison insisted in an interview that he’s trying to lower the national suicide rate, whilst parroting some of the reasons that the statistics are particularly bad for LGBTQI people in the very same breath. Not such a great look. If there’s one thing we know that the Government will sit up and listen to though, it’s economic statistics. So let me put this one out there:
Mental health costs the Australian economy $12 billion per year in lost productivity due to workers calling in sick and not being able to work for long periods of time. That is an insane amount of cash.
I saw this tweet the other day and haven’t been able to stop thinking about it:
I’m going to leave the Jeff Bezos part for now. But a billion dollars is more than I can wrap my head around as a broke millennial, and every year Australia is losing 12 times that amount because of the mental health of its workers.
We shouldn’t have to talk about mental health in terms of cost to the economy for it to be taken seriously, but it seems to be a strategy that works when it comes to dealing with the government and other powerful people. Money talks, after all.
Progress is certainly being made when it comes to our attitudes towards mental health in Australia, and that’s brilliant, but it doesn’t mean we can call it a day. For as long as statistics are still telling us that young people are more likely to die by suicide than anything else, we need to be working towards providing emergency help and accessible long-term support to each and every person who needs it.
For now, use World Mental Health Day as the perfect excuse to cut yourself some slack. Chat to a friend, wrap yourself in a blanket in front of Netflix, and accept this big internet hug from me.
If you or someone you care about needs help, please contact Lifeline on 13 11 14.