TRANSCRIPT
The health of a nation's children and the ability for them to live longer and healthier lives than those who came before is often considered one of the key indicators of societal progress.
Australia is consistently ranked as one of the wealthiest countries in the world per capita.
So why then is the health of children in Australia not only stagnating, but in some cases moving backwards?
This week saw the launch of a national framework tracking the health of young people from the Victorian Health Promotion Foundation, the Murdoch Children’s Research Institute and the Australian Research Alliance for Children and Youth.
They call the framework the Future Healthy Countdown 2030 and it will deliver annual reports in hopes of encouraging real systemic change in healthcare offerings over the next seven years.
Dr Sandro Demaio is the CEO of the Victorian Health Promotion Foundation, or VicHealth.
“The health and well being of our children and young people is going backwards in many communities, and certainly not progressing in the ways that we've committed and the ways that we want and should be. So this new supplement tracks a range of really critical areas of child and adolescent health and well being from looking at the material basics, access to the foundations that children and young people need to be able to thrive, but also, of course, access to a sustainable, healthy environment, and a sense of identity, and culture.”
In a report published in The Medical Journal of Australia, the combined health organisations highlighted factors that have led to growing negative health outcomes for children including increasing wealth inequality, low levels of children achieving physical activity recommendations, and higher rates of psychological distress compared with older adults.
Their data shows that one in six young people are living in poverty.
They also highlight that 24 per cent of five-to-14-year-olds are overweight or dealing with obesity, moving to 41 per cent for 15-24 year olds, which increases risks of diseases such as diabetes, heart disease and some cancers.
Dr Demaio says poverty and cost of living pressures directly impacts this relationship to food and physical health.
“It's things like being able to afford, access and enjoy good food. It's about proper housing. If kids are living in environments, or young people can't afford rents, to be able to put a quality roof over their heads a place to be able to cook and enjoy and share food. These things impact on their health and on their food security. We've seen a doubling of food insecurity over the last couple of years as the cost of living crisis affects young people who are particularly sensitive to cost of living pressures.”
Another key area of concern the national framework identified is the worsening mental health of young people in Australia, with data showing that 40 per cent of 16-24-year-olds meet the criteria for a mental disorder.
Dr Demaio says improvements in the ability to identify these illnesses earlier may be a small factor, but he claims the increase in mental illness is undeniable.
“When it comes to mental health, there has been improvements in diagnostics that mean we're probably catching young people earlier, but there absolutely has been a significant increase in the last few years - a very concerning increase in poorer mental health. And this is due to issues like the very real psychological effects and stress caused by climate change, rising cost of living, but then deeper issues. We know racism is a major driver of poor mental health in young people in Australia, and a protective factor is their ability to connect with others.”
Khalid Muse is a 19-year-old associate research fellow at Deakin University and also served as one of the lead young authors in the national framework's report.
He says it's vital that a diverse array of young voices are included as an integral part of any strategy to address youth health outcomes.
“I was bringing sort of a broader perspective of the need to include young voices like mine in decision making. But likewise, I was very critical, in my sense of reflecting and contributing in the sense that I am a young African person who is a key advocate in these issues, and recognising that there's engines of exclusion, inequity and injustice, that drive some of these issues. So things like racism and discrimination are at the forefront are some of these challenges.”
Jamie Newman is the Chief Executive Officer of the Orange Aboriginal Medical Service in inland New South Wales.
He says worsening health outcomes for youth in regional First Nations communities are well known, but the solutions are never straightforward.
“We know that there's escalation with our young people around their mental health. We know there's escalation and our young people around S-T-I / B-B-Vs, and also around suicidal tendencies. The societal issues that our young people face: racism is one of them where there's mainstream services denied or access denied. But we also had that conflict within Aboriginal communities, amongst our own people. And trying to address that is going to be one of our biggest challenges moving forward if we're going to improve, improve access, and connection with our young people in our communities.”
Mr Newman says top-down initiatives that attempt to improve health outcomes for Indigenous youth never work because they fail to listen to the voices of young people.
“Young people need to be heard, unfortunately, they have not been heard for generations. Yet sadly, they're the generation we're trying to change. But if they don't have input into what that change looks like, how it's going to be delivered, when it's going to be delivered, where it's going to be delivered, we'll never ever engage with the cohort we need to. Because forever and a day we're telling them this is what they need to do. That has never worked for our young people. They need to be involved in their health care. We need to be listening. And we need to be redesigning or reshaping services that cater to the need.”
Khalid Muse agrees that centring youth voices is key.
He says establishing the Future Healthy Countdown 2030 framework has been a helpful leaping off point but a lot of work now needs to be done.
“I think it's really important to share the space and to realise that young people, as voices are not being equitably heard, in decision making spaces. I think this framework really sets a good understanding of how we can include young voices. Definitely, this is not the end. This supplement was great, but there is definitely a lot of work, to build around it to promote it and to really shift the dial in the next seven years.”
