Richard Eckersley has called
for stricter media standards
in order to halt the decline
of youths' health.

Policy makers need to rethink their approach to health and introduce stricter standards for the media if a decline in the health of Australia’s young people is to be halted.

A report released in Canberra on 25 September finds that the health and wellbeing of Australians aged around 25 years and under have been declining on a range of measures over the last 20 years, even though death rates have dropped considerably.

This downward slide could negatively impact the nation’s future population health unless action is taken now, argues report author Richard Eckersley, a founding director of Australia21 and a visiting fellow at the National Centre for Epidemiology and Population Health at The Australian National University.

“Orthodox views about youth health and wellbeing tend to underestimate the growing importance of non-fatal, chronic illness – especially mental disorders,” Mr Eckersley says. “Research suggests 20 to 30 per cent of young people are suffering significant psychological distress at any one time, with less severe stress-related symptoms such as frequent headaches, stomach-aches and insomnia affecting as many as 50 per cent.

“Mental disorders account for almost half the burden of disease in young Australians, measured as both death and disability. The weight of evidence suggests that the prevalence of mental disorders has increased over successive generations of youth, as have some physical illnesses, notably diabetes,
linked to rising levels of obesity.”

Mr Eckersley says that factors contributing to the decline in mental health among young people include family conflict and breakdown, education and work pressures, media and technological impacts, dietary changes and environmental pollution. He says that cultural intangibles, such as excessive materialism and individualism, are also a problem.

The report Never better – or getting worse? The health and wellbeing of young Australians calls for:

• Conceptualising health as more than the provision of healthcare services, including spending more on prevention, public and mental health programs
• Increasing education about young people’s understanding of themselves, their health and wellbeing and their place in the world
• Setting stricter standards for the corporate sector, especially the media, to reduce the ‘commodification’ of childhood, including more regulation around advertising
• Fostering the importance of health, rather than wealth, in the community and in public policy.