Young and Well CRC CEO Assoc Prof Jane Burns and Inspire Foundation Youth Ambassador Doug Millen gave an argument for investing in young people's mental wealth at the Battle of Big Thinking, part of the Circus Festival for Commercial Creativity in February 2011. "One in four young Australians experiences a mental illness involving symptoms such as these, yet 70 per cent of young people who need help or treatment do not seek it, cannot access help, or help is not available to them. Tangible barriers such as distance and cost stand between young people and treatment, yet cultural factors like stigma stand even stronger in preventing young people from accessing help. If mental wealth is the value that an individual brings to society when they are mentally well, then imagine how much more Australia could do if only we provided better and more accessible help to the one million young people who need it. "So our big idea -- what we're doing, really -- is to spend big on youth ment! al health. Not because it is the moral thing to do, but because the economic future of our country rests on the brains of our young people being not only well educated but mentally healthy, fit, and strong. The second part of our big idea is to improve the role technology plays in ensuring that young Australians are safe, happy, healthy and resilient. "Only together will we achieve the feat of improving the wellbeing of one million young Australians. We must view young people as part of the solution ...
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