‘Alarming rise in youth mental distress amidst ‘uncharted’ adversities’, experts warn
‘Precarious work, environmental degradation and unregulated social media use are driving alarming decline, research finds’
Wage exploitation, deregulated digital platforms, precarious employment, and the escalating climate crisis are joined by a coalition of health experts as part of an intergenerational inequity to push up a rise in mental distress among young people globally, which is at once frightening and dangerous.
The precipitating factors need to be resolved on an urgent basis, with work put into enhancing mental health interventions that have today been found to be one of the root causes of pre-mature death, disability, and unrealized potential rates that have shot up at a very fast pace over the past two decades, as found by research in appointments of The Lancet Psychiatry Commission.
Released on Wednesday, it was steered by associate professor Patrick McGorry— currently serving as the executive director of Australia’s Orygen Centre of Excellence in Youth Mental Health. He said, “This is the most serious public health failure that we have today.”.
“If this were an epidemic in any other area like diabetes or cancer, Governments would act within days or hours, actually, and not leave it to tens of years to try and develop services,” he added.
For every child or teenager in the world, mental health problems account for at least 45% of the overall burden of diseases in people aged 10 to 24, yet an insignificant 2% share of the global health budget goes into taking care of their mental health, the report found.
Even in high-income countries, not even half of the demand is met, the report said.
Indeed, there is “a societal ambivalence often exhibited towards the needs and concerns of young people,” McGorry noted.
“But we’re seeing a really profound disintegration of society, underwritten by the economic orthodoxy, which has morphed into the new neoliberalism in which everything is a commodity.”
The global preoccupation with individualism and competition, he continued, is “tearing social fabric; corroding the public interest and public goods; and building-up destructive industries and corporations.”.
“We think somehow from the surface that maybe the past generations had faced, with the Great Depression, the world wars, and even the threats of atomic annihilation,” McGorry said. “But in reality, there is much less sense of security and a great deal less hope for the future in this generation than ever previously. The set of challenges facing the youth today is different, disquieting, and above all, more severe than we have ever seen.”
He stated that in most countries; the median house price is a multitude of the average annual income. “Social media and digital platforms, poorly regulated and fueling political polarization, are making young people ever more isolated, said McGorry. “Those platforms are completely under the control of that tech giant and they operate with total impunity,” he said.
“It’s not the young people who are the problem or who need to be restricted. We should be focusing on making the digital environment a safe space.”
A 23-year-old adviser for Orygen’s youth strategies, identified only as Li, recounted her first exposure to pornography online at the age of 12, an experience that had a lasting and damaging impact on her self-esteem and body image.
“There is a vast amount of adult content online, and exposure to it is often unsolicited,” Li said.
“I saw the internet as a place to escape or connect with others around the world who shared similar experiences. But instead, I found hyper-unregulated, dangerous content, and my parents’ generation doesn’t really understand how bad it is.”
The commission’s report, based on a writing collaboration of psychiatrists, psychologists, researchers, and young people, describes the younger generation as being “constantly” online at high risk for their mental health.
“Mental distress, which has been the predominant health and social issue affecting the lives and futures of young people for decades, has entered a perilous phase,” the paper warned.
“[It] represents a major threat to the lives and futures of young people, alarming evidence indicating its prevalence and impact to be progressively upward, at least in many high-resource environments.”
An article that reports on the finding of the commission was completed by King’s College London together with the commission. The article also noted that most of the evidence in the commission’s report comes from high-income countries. However, suggests. An article in Time, though, says the largest sum of the burden of the mental distress of the children and teenagers falls on—90% of the children and teenagers—in low and middle-income—countries.
“My Government is concerned with unmet need for mental health services, the figure that reaches almost 100% in the countries,” says the representative of WHO, Carla Drysdale.
“All countries, at all resource levels can work towards better preventing and addressing mental ill-health in their young people,” she said. A workforce should be developed without any specialty but with professionals like school counsellors, community-based workers, and Peers, she added
“WHO is backing countries in designs for community-based mental healthcare for the youth, which are already reshaping services and the care pathway to make them accessible”.
It is the leading cause of death ages 15-44 in Australia, 15-19 in New Zealand and 15-39 in India.
Dr. Paul Denborough, a child and youth psychiatrist not associated with the commission’s report, said The Lancet paper was “spot on, in that a society marked by greater inequality and marginalization is profoundly destructive”.
“The policies of governments are such that they have no interest in supporting the young people,” he said.
“Younger generations are all too aware of the inter-generational injustice that is being perpetrated”—he continues, his voice rising at the end as if only now calling up his full strength
Denborough, clinical director of Headspace in Australia, a low-cost or free service for 12- to 25-year-olds, said it was crucial to recognize the many stressors young people were under and to treat the causes of that distress rather than necessarily slapping a label on them.
“The inequality, the lack of affordable housing, the precarious employment—these are often the root causes,” he said.
“You’re just putting a sticking plaster on it, unless intergenerational equity in what you do and addressing the causes underpins it.”
FAQs
What are the major causes for the increase of youth mental health problems?
The reasons for growing youth mental troubles are numerous, with the leadership of issues brought by the pandemic situation, social network demands, economic insecurity, and the challenge of climate change and other global crises.
How, then, has the COVID-19 pandemic fueled mental distress among youths?
How the Covid-19 pandemic has worsened the mental distress of young people: Socially, the Covid-19 pandemic has led to the isolation, disturbance of routines, and an environment filled with uncertainty and anxiety. A major impact has also been from school closures and the reduction in social interactions.
What is the impact of social media on the mental health of youth?
Social media has been investigated to play a negative role in the mental health of youths through its creation of pressure to maintain a perfect life and how such exposure to users leads to cyberbullying and ultimately reaching feelings of inadequacy and loneliness. At the same time, it has the potential together with mindful usage to create a supportive environment and community for its users.
How can schools trying to support students who are struggling with their mental health issues?
Schools can support students by providing mental health education, training educators how to recognize the signs of distress, counseling services, and making it a comfortable place for students to ask for help.
What are the things that would support parental assistance towards handling the mental well-being of their children?
Parents can help support their children by being open to discussion, monitoring their child’s mental health needs, enabling good coping mechanisms, and even involving professional help.