22 September 2010

Mental illness rising in line with support for the Greens?

22 September 2010 | johnboy

The Greens’ Amanda Bresnan is pointing out that there’s been a rise in the incidence of mental illness in the ACT:

“The ACT Chief Health Officer’s report shows that mental disorders now make up 15% of the burden of disease in the ACT, compared with 13% in the 2008 report.

“Mental disorders also now make up 5% of the mortality rate in the ACT. National figures show that for young people this rate is much higher as mental illness is the biggest cause of death amongst women aged under-34 and men aged under 44.

“The ALP-ACT Greens Parliamentary Agreement calls on the ACT Government to move towards providing 12% of the health budget to mental health – but the Government have made slow progress in moving towards this rate over the last two years.

With the rise in mental illness eerily matching the rise in the Greens’ vote in the ACT you’d think she’d be all for it!

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Pork Hunt9:38 pm 23 Sep 10

I’m definately madder than I used to be…

PM4:59 pm 23 Sep 10

Hm. Yet the Greens don’t consider such matters important when discussing alcohol-fuelled violence in Civic.

Furry Jesus10:03 am 23 Sep 10

What is this 2% made up of? or the previous 13%?

I have a bit of an issue with these statistics, because they treat all mental illness as if there is only one level of severity. Not all mental health problems are as debilitating as a full-blown psychotic episode.

and who’s doing the counting? Who’s making the diagnoses? Wouldn’t be the medical profession, would it? Not all of us want to see the medicalisation of every aspect of human existence.

Years ago there was a comic strip about Woody Allen. My favourite was always one where Woody was talking to his friend the psychologist Dr Hemholz. Woody asked whether it was true that psychologists felt compelled to give a diagnosis for everything that humans did, and Hemholz replied “of course not, Woody my boy….and by the way, that condition you refer to – we call it nomandatus.”

motleychick9:26 am 23 Sep 10

cleo said :

There is also a lot of drugs in Canberra, which contributes to mental health issues in some people, especially young adults.

A lot of people who have a mental illness will turn to drugs or alcohol – it’s called comorbidity. It is very rarely that drugs are the cause of a mental health issue.

p19:25 am 23 Sep 10

Is JB suggesting the the greens are driving us nuts?

Thoroughly Smashed9:16 am 23 Sep 10

Pommy bastard said :

Bites tongue, bites tongue, bites tongue, bites tongue…

You really are trying to get me into deep trouble here, aren’t you John?

I like a good tongue-in-cheek post hoc fallacy.

Jim Jones8:47 am 23 Sep 10

cleo said :

There is also a lot of drugs in Canberra, which contributes to mental health issues in some people, especially young adults.

If you look at the figures on drug usage in Australia, you’ll see that there is a clear reduction in the amount of illicit drug use amongst young people (the prime candidates for mental health issues) not an increase.

Pommy bastard7:48 am 23 Sep 10

Bites tongue, bites tongue, bites tongue, bites tongue…

You really are trying to get me into deep trouble here, aren’t you John?

cleo1:00 am 23 Sep 10

There is also a lot of drugs in Canberra, which contributes to mental health issues in some people, especially young adults.

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