The Mental Health First Aid® Australia (MHFA™) manuals and course teaching materials contain information on how common various mental illnesses are, using data from the 2007 National Survey of Mental Health and Wellbeing run by the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS). The ABS collects data on health from a number of other national surveys, one of which is the National Health Survey, which includes data on ‘mental and behavioural conditions’. The ABS has recently released some relevant data from the 2014-15 National Health Survey, prompting some Instructors to ask why the MHFA courses do not use these more recent figures.
The reason is that the National Health Survey asks participants to report whether they have any “mental health, behavioural and cognitive conditions”, including any they are “currently managing with treatment or medication”. In other words, participants have to report a diagnosis they have received or give a self-diagnosis. By contrast, the National Survey of Mental Health and Wellbeing, asked about specific symptoms and the impact these had on the person’s life. This information is used by a computer program to make a diagnosis, so it would include mental health problems where the person had not have received any diagnosis or treatment by a health professional.
Because the National Survey of Mental Health and Wellbeing gives a better reflection of how common mental illnesses are, including untreated illnesses, the MHFA courses will continue to use its data. ABS has not announced whether there will be an updated version of this survey. However, because the previous surveys were carried out in 1997 and 2007, it is to be hoped there will be a new survey in late 2021 or 2022.