Australia's youth: Mental illness - Australian Institute of Health and Welfare

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• an estimated 245,000 (around 14%) experienced a mental disorder

• er (7.7%) b

• (4.7%)

• 7.4% among those who did not have major depressive disorder 15% among those where both the parent/carer report and young person report indicated that the young person had major depressive disorder 30% among those where only the young person report indicated major depressive disorder (Lawrence et al. 2015).

• Young people rated how much their parents or carers knew about how they were feeling. The proportion who reported that their parent/carers know ‘not at all’ how they are feeling was: 7.4% among those who did not have major depressive disorder 15% among those where both the parent/carer report and young person report indicated that the young person had major depressive disorder 30% among those where only the young person report indicated major depressive disorder (Lawrence et al. 2015).

• How many young people self-harm and engage in suicidal behaviour?

• around 1 in 10 (11% or an estimated 186,000) reported ever having deliberately injured themselves.

• 5.9% of young people (or 100,000) had self-harmed 4 or more times over their lifetime

• 8.0% of young people (or 137,000) had self-harmed in the past 12 months,

• around 128,000 or 7.5% had seriously considered attempting suicide in the previous 12 months.

• Self-harm and mental disorders

• n 2013–14 among young people aged 12–17

• highest rates of self-harm in the 12 months prior to the survey were among those with major depressive disorders (47% based on self-report and 33% based on parent/carer report)