So, for me, and many other students trying to juggle the university workload and mental health it can take a toll and effect students results in their studies. This can then further effect student’s mental health ending up on a loop and may even cause further issues, such as falling into a deeper depression or cycle of anxiety and even developing other mental illnesses on top of existing ones. Around 54% of people who suffer with mental illness do not access help or treatment ( Black dog institute. N.D.).
Historically, we can see that mental health was treated very differently then in todays society. Mental illness has historically been associated with being demonically possessed and evil spirits. “Cures” for people suffering these conditions included conducting near death experiences such as drowning and shock therapy. Asylums were found to have such low success rate with these methods they quickly became overcrowded. It was seen that evil spirits and divine punishment were considered to be the cause of mental illnesses. However, since the closure of Asylums there has not been enough necessary levels of community care in some ways it could be considered that people who suffer from mental illness are worse off than they were before with higher rates of homelessness associated with mental health.
Structurally, economic costs related to mental illness in communities are high. Government outlay, and health insurers provide services for mental health and in 2006 to 2007 it totalled $4.7 billion, this represented 7.3% all the government health spending. Mental health as a whole in overall government spending based on health has remained relatively stable in the last 15-year course of the ‘National Mental Health Strategy’. Figures reflect only the costs of operating specialist mental health services they do not indicate the full extent of the economic burden of mental illness and costs to government. The National Mental Health Report conducted in 2007 recently analysed these costs and has estimated that the outlays by the government with mainstream support for people with mental illness substantially exceeded costs of specialist mental health care. These outlays produced by the Government show that mental illness impacts on the broader economy in Australia by reducing participation within the workplace and has impaired the productivity of everyone who is currently employed.
In conclusion, I think mental health plays a generally big part of those taking on university level education, and there is a lot of ways to get help that are offered to you. The Government are also helping to open up even more avenues to gain help.
Fiona's Blog 