Oct
7
Written by:
kerriwalters
Thursday, October 07, 2010
Today’s VIP cube visitor, Child Psychologist Dr Aaron Frost, said he has no doubt a cure can be found for schizophrenia, with dedicated research funding.
Currently precise assessment tools that can accurately diagnose mental disorders do not exist, one of the major reasons ClearThinking is pushing for a dedicated research effort relating to better assessment tools for young people.
One in four young people develop a mental disorder in any one year and mental illness is the only major disease group where mortality rates are increasing, instead of decreasing.
In his interview today, Dr Frost spelt out in no uncertain terms that with adequate government funding mortality rates could dramatically drop, as has been achieved for cancer and any number of other serious illnesses in the past 20 years.
Considering 70% of health problems in young people are mental health problems it needs to be said again, this funding is long overdue.
A dedicated youth service model has been proven by research to work, according to Dr Frost, who is very complimentary about the work of Australian of the Year, Professor Pat McGorry and the rollout of the Headspace program.
ClearThinking’s proposal for a research centre for youth mental health in Brisbane aims to start where Headspace ends, keeping more young people in treatment for longer and using research as the basis to develop innovative best practice initiatives over the coming years.
For the first time this week it feels to me as though the message is finally getting through! This only goes to prove my point that media attention completely correlates to a community’s awareness of certain issues and is absolutely necessary to mobilise the people power it takes to drive government concern and ultimately funding into neglected areas such as mental illness.
It is truly amazing the number of people who are more aware today of what I’m doing than yesterday. This becomes particularly evident in the evenings when people walk by and talk with me about what I’m doing, rather than ask why I’m here.
QUT tvnews, Gold Coast Bulletin, Katie at 973FM, Walter Williams at 4BC, Terri & Madonna at 612Brisbane, Channel 7 Sunrise, Courier Mail, Network 10 News and Channel 9 Brisbane; thank you for your interest and for helping to bring this important issue to the forefront of people’s minds.
To the people of Brisbane I reiterate the comments of Dr Aaron Frost today and Mark McArdle yesterday; write to your local MPs, tell them you’re concerned about mental health and keep this issue on the agenda in the lead-up to the next State Election. The future mental health of your loved ones might depend on it.