Young Victorians suicidal, self-harming due to COVID-19
The pandemic has led to a worrying increase in self-harm incidents among young Victorians as calls to mental health helplines soar by over 60 per cent.
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There are three times as many Victorians seeking help for mental health as those in the rest of the country, Australia’s top mental health bureaucrat has revealed.
A Senate Estimates Committee on Monday heard young people, in particular, had experienced a loss of hope about what the future holds as a result of COVID, driving an increase in self harm incidents.
“Their world has become quite narrow and their options have become quite narrow,” Mental Health Commissioner Christine Morgan told the committee.
She said the problem is worst among those in their final years of school up to the age of 25.
There was a 61 per cent jump in calls to Kids Helpline in Victoria between September 7 and October 4, 2020 compared to the same time last year, the committee was told.
Calls to Lifeline in Victoria increased by 40 per cent this year compared to last year, while BeyondBlue experienced a 67 per cent rise.
The Government has massively increased spending on mental health and doubled the number of Medicare funded mental health services.
However, the Greens and Labor grilled the government on why it had been sitting on the results of three major inquiries into mental health including the Productivity Commission report on mental health reform which was delivered to the government in June.
Questions on management of COVID-19 dominated the hearings.
South Australian Senator Rex Patrick accused the government of denying the public crucial information on how a COVID-19 vaccine will be rolled out including information on who will get it first.
He revealed he was sent 42 blank pages in response to a freedom of information request on how the vaccine rollout would proceed and was told it was secret because it was a matter of national security.
“This is how you’re treating the Australian public, they’re not allowed to know what a strategy is in relation to deployment of a vaccine, something that is fundamental to their health,” he said.
Department of Health officials revealed Australia had reached only two vaccine supply deals with AstraZeneca (Oxford University) and CSL (University of Queensland).
“Equivalent health systems like Canada, the UK, the European Union and the US all have six deals each,” Opposition health spokesman Chris Bowen said.
The committee heard the $70 million COVIDSafe app developed by the federal government had only been used to trace 17 unique cases that were not otherwise identified by manual contact tracing.
“This is $4 million dollars per unique contact,” Mr Bowen said.
Senators probed whether a media release criticising the lack of transparency in how hundreds of millions of dollars in medical research funding was allocated was softened after intervention by Health Minister Greg Hunt’s office.
If you need help please contact Lifeline on 13 11 14, BeyondBlue 1300 22 4636, Kids Helpline 1800 55 1800
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Originally published as Young Victorians suicidal, self-harming due to COVID-19