00:01A mixed bag of data that has come out from the AIHW, but I think it's also important
00:07to note that there is a trend that has been growing and we haven't really reversed that
00:12and that is the trend that young women are really increasing in numbers in terms of their
00:18experience of mental ill health.
00:21When we say mental ill health, what are we talking about here?
00:24We're usually talking about depression, anxiety, eating disorders and trauma disorders,
00:31all of which are experienced a lot more by young women.
00:35In fact, the latest data shows that there's a huge increase in the women aged 25 to 34.
00:41That was increased by 26%.
00:44So this is a trend and we saw this post-COVID as well and during COVID that in fact young
00:51women experienced more mental ill health than young men.
00:55Both are obviously suffering so it's not a race to the bottom, but we need to pay heed
01:01to the fact that young women experience differently the symptoms of those conditions that I just
01:07outlined.
01:09Can you outline those differences and what's prompting more young women to have these issues?
01:14It's really important to take a holistic lens to this and for young women there are biological
01:20factors, there are psychological factors and then there are social or environmental factors.
01:25Violence against young women we know in this country and in others is still a big issue
01:30that really does need attention and that is trauma inducing things such as emotional abuse,
01:37physical abuse and of course sexual abuse.
01:40Then you add to that the biological factors.
01:42There are changes that trauma can and can wreak in terms of the hormonal sensitivities and so we have
01:51for young women unfortunately reproductive hormone changes that they're sensitive to with premenstrual
01:58depression and also all the postnatal and antenatal that's during pregnancy mental ill health conditions.
02:04And then we have some of the differences in culture and psychology, in power differentials and all these
02:12factors that play out.
02:14Nonetheless, I think it's really high time that we pay much more attention to the plight of young women,
02:21in particular the interplay between trauma and mental ill health.
02:26Can you outline that?
02:27At the moment there are some conditions that are very much more labelled for young women such as
02:35borderline personality disorder. This is a horrible label because in fact it is not a personality
02:42disorder which makes it seem as if it's the young person's fault. In actual fact this is a trauma
02:48response to early life and subsequent emotional, physical or sexual trauma and it's experienced much
02:55more by women who are more sensitive to their environmental factors. And so instead of calling
03:01this a personality disorder and proceeding down that track we need to actually get better at
03:06understanding trauma and provide trauma treatments of which there are but we're not actually putting
03:11them into play in our emergency departments, mental health services and more broadly in the primary
03:17healthcare sector. So you know this is an example of one condition. There are many other conditions
03:23where we need to get better at specific tailored treatments for those who identify as female or women.
03:31Jade Shree Kolkhani thank you so much for joining us today. Thank you.
03:37Kids Helpline offers free confidential counselling for young people aged 5 to 25. You can call 1800 55 1800 or
03:47visit their website.
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