Advocacy submissions
Quicklinks (more details below)
Prevention United’s Submission regarding the Online Safety Amendment (Social Media Minimum Age Bill) 2024 Download
Be part of the ripple: Listening to the voices that matter! Download
Press Statement: Leading mental health organisations say proposed ban won’t make social media safe Download
Policy Brief: The significance of gender-based violence as a key driver in young women’s disproportioned experiences of mental ill health Download
Youth mental health and social media – joint position statement by Australian mental health focused organisations working with young people Download
The impact of screen time and social media on the mental health of young Australians Download
Policy Brief: School-based mental health and wellbeing programs. What’s working, what’s not? Download
Reimagining Youth Mental Health: Building Australia’s youth mental health system (Solutions Paper) Download
Exploring the role of community coalitions in the prevention of mental health conditions Download
Reimagining Youth Mental Health (Discussion Paper) Download
Reimagining Youth Mental Health (Summary Version) Download
Starting upstream: A consensus statement on the prevention of mental disorders Download
Primed for prevention: A consensus statement on the prevention of mental disorders Download
Victorian Royal Commission into Mental Health (Submission) Download
Productivity Commission Inquiry into Mental Health (Submission) Download
2024
Be part of the ripple: Listening to the voices that matter!
This report summarises the results of the Prevention United Youth Survey which was conducted online in mid-2024. The survey was designed by the Prevention United Youth Advisory Group (YAG) who wanted to ask young people what factors they thought are having the most negative and positive impacts on their mental health, what activities they were most likely engage in to improve their mental health and what they thought could be done by Government to improve the mental health of young Australians. We received responses from 589 young Australians aged 16–25 years old.
Press Statement: Leading mental health organisations say proposed ban won’t make social media safe
Australia’s leading mental health organisations believe the proposed social media ban will risk cutting young people across Australia off from mental health support, exposing them to new harms and leaving many without any support. This is a complex issue that requires comprehensive evidence-based and co-designed reforms, if we want to truly protect and improve the mental health of young people. We also need social media platforms to step up, and take responsibility for their products and make sure that young people are not exposed to harmful content.
Policy Brief: The significance of gender-based violence as a key driver in young women’s disproportioned experiences of mental ill health
The youth mental health crisis and gender-based violence (GBV) are both topics of current media attention. However, even though experiencing violence is a known risk factor for poor mental health, these issues are rarely spoken about together. In discussion with our youth advisory group, we believe that it is time to have an urgent conversation to highlight the effect(s) of GBV on the mental health of young Australians and to take steps to decrease the incidence of this salient risk factor. This policy brief explores the impact of GBV on the mental health and wellbeing of girls and young women and the ways that we can decrease and prevent the incidence of both.
Youth mental health and social media – joint position statement by Australian mental health focused organisations working with young people
While social media can negatively affect some young people’s mental health it can also be protective in facilitating connectedness and a sense of community. Age-based bans may have unintended negative outcomes and a nuanced approach is needed. We are joining together with ARACY, batyr, Beyond Blue, headspace, Orygen, PROJECT ROCKIT, and ReachOut Australia to ensure youth perspectives are included in the debate, that solutions are grounded in the evidence and that there is consideration of the areas most likely to impact the mental health and wellbeing of children and young people.
The impact of screen time and social media on the mental health of young Australians
Recent media headlines have attributed the rise in youth mental ill-health to the parallel increase in young people’s access to smartphones and social media. However, correlation does not prove causation and the research literature paints a far more nuanced picture of the benefits and risks of screen time and social media. While there are clear risks associated with the online world, the alarmist headlines do not consider the positive experiences young people report, or acknowledge the other complex societal factors that are also contributing to the rise in youth mental ill-health.
The brief explores both the benefits and risks to young people’s mental health and discusses how we can harness the positive aspects of the digital environment while averting or minimising potential mental health harms among young Australians.
Policy Brief: School-based mental health and wellbeing programs. What’s working, what’s not?
Schools are ideal settings for mental wellbeing promotion and preventative mental health interventions and there is substantial evidence demonstrating the effectiveness and cost-effectiveness of these interventions. However, despite their benefits, there is considerable variation across Australian schools in the use of such initiatives, the selection of evidence-based programs, and the quality of program implementation. There is also very poor tracking of the impacts of initiatives, and students’ mental health more broadly.
The brief provides recommendations outlining how schools can address the challenges they face in choosing and implementing high-quality, evidence-based wellbeing and prevention interventions, and by improving the way we monitor student mental health. Governments also need to broaden their focus beyond student mental wellbeing, to support the mental health and wellbeing of teachers and other staff responsible for creating a mentally healthy school environment.
2023
Reimagining Youth Mental Health: Building Australia’s youth mental health system (Solutions Paper)
The latest ABS national mental health survey data paints a deeply concerning picture of young people’s mental health. If the rates seen in the survey periods (2020 and 2021) continue, it means EVERY YEAR well over 600,000 young women will experience a serious mood, anxiety or substance use condition, and over 470,000 young men will also experience these conditions.
While it’s important that we keep strengthening Australia’s youth mental healthcare system to support young men and women experiencing these difficulties, there’s much more we can do! There are now proven effective ways that we can use to promote young people’s mental wellbeing and prevent these conditions from occurring in the first place and so we need to expand our youth mental health policy response to include a bigger focus on mental health promotion and preventive mental health.
Exploring the role of community coalitions in the prevention of mental health conditions
This Policy Brief provides an overview of community coalition-based approaches to preventive mental health. Community coalitions focus on mobilising local community stakeholders to plan, implement, and monitor strategies to reduce the incidence of health, mental health and/or substance use conditions within a geographic or culturally defined community. They hold considerable value in supporting the implementation of multiple complementary strategies that create a collective impact within a community.
Reimagining Youth Mental Health (Discussion Paper)
Young people are increasingly struggling with their mental health. Data collected over the past two decades reveal a steady increase in the prevalence of anxiety and affective disorders among young Australians aged 16-24, with alarming increases between 2007 and 2021.
The Discussion Paper explores the possible factors contributing to the increased prevalence of mental health conditions among young people and outlines the new, more proactive approach that’s urgently needed to stem the rising tide of mental ill-health among young Australians.
Download full Discussion Paper
2022
Starting upstream: A consensus statement on the prevention of mental disorders
Despite steadily increasing investment in mental healthcare services over the last few decades, the prevalence of mental health conditions in Australia is rising rather than falling, services are struggling to keep up with demand, and individual, government and societal costs are escalating.
The Prevention Coalition in Mental Health’s Primed for Prevention Consensus Statement, released in 2020, outlined the types of evidence-based programs and policies that can be used to prevent the onset of common mental health conditions. This second Consensus Statement focuses on the system enablers that are needed to build an efficient, effective, and sustainable preventive mental health system that integrates with and complements our mental healthcare system, and our health promotion and public health systems.
2020
Primed for prevention: A consensus statement on the prevention of mental disorders
This Prevention Consensus Statement has been developed by the Prevention Coalition in Mental Health, an informal group of like-minded organisations with a shared belief in the importance of prevention in the mental health field. The Prevention Consensus Statement sets out what we can do to prevent depression, anxiety, and other conditions right now as we work our way through the social and economic challenges wrought by COVID-19, and into the future. Enhancing our focus on prevention will strengthen individuals and communities, save money, and save lives.
2019
Victorian Royal Commission into Mental Health
The Victoria Royal Commission into mental health is an opportunity to thoughtfully and thoroughly review Victoria’s approach to mental health to determine what’s working and what’s not, across the entire spectrum of promotion, prevention, early intervention, recovery support and suicide prevention. We need to do things better – much better – and look for new solutions to this issue. In writing this submission we recognise that the Victorian Government must prioritise the needs of people living with a mental health condition, and their carers, however we also believe that our government has a responsibility to promote the mental wellbeing of the entire community, not only the 1.2% of people who access public specialist mental health services each year.
Royal Commission Submission – 2019
Productivity Commission Inquiry into Mental Health
In early 2019, we joined forces with other prevention focused organisations in the health and mental health field to lodge a joint submission to the Productivity Commission Inquiry into Mental Health, as well as submitting our own independent submission.
Productivity Commission Submission – 2019
Executive Director, Dr Steve Carbone, also took the opportunity to present a response to the draft report produced by the Productivity Commission at a public hearing on Tuesday 19th November, 2019. You can watch a video recording of his verbal submission below.
Commonwealth Government Budget
Each year, the Australian Government invites organisations to submit recommendations for the forthcoming Federal Budget to help them decide how to allocate funding in particular areas. We believe that, in addition to treatment, more money needs to be spent on prevention and so we made the case to Government through the linked Budget Submission 2019-2020.
Commonwealth Government Budget Submission – 2019
