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What can normal people do get the government(s) to give a s*#t about mental health?

JlolSenior Contributor27 May 2025, 4:48 pm AEST

What can normal people do get the government(s) to give a s*#t about mental health?

Its no secret that mental health issues and suicide rates are on the incline. In Australia most common cause of death for people under 45 is suicide. Not drink driving, not drugs, not smoking, not alcohol, not workplace accidents, not cancer, or heart conditions or any other number of things.

We're constantly bombarded by government campaigns about the dangers of distracted driving, alcohol consumption, and smoking. But nothing about how mental health can impact life.

In QLD I can get fined $1,200 by automated cameras using state-of-the art AI technology for merely touching my phone whilst waiting at a traffic light - enough, during this cost of living crisis, to potential make some people homeless - but there isn't even an active public mental health service.

The national suicide rate has increased 30% in the last few years from 7 people a day to 9. Clearly whatever we - and by 'we' I mean our elected representatives - are doing isn't working.

So what could make them sit up pay attention?

I'm very open to suggestions, but if they're happy to bankrupt students or lower class people with $1,200 traffic fines from a system that doesn't even employ many people I'm pretty sure the answer is "money".

How much money in tax could the government be missing out on from those 9 people a day? Well the, the median income is $90,000 with $17,788 of that paid to income tax (not including GST or Medicare levy). Times 9 people that's $160,092. Times that by 365.25 days a year that's $58,473,603!

For context, that's:

the salaries of 655 registered nurses
enough to buy and equip 195 ambulances
enough to pay off the HECS debt of 2,200 students
enough to pay all the annual salaries of the Members of Parliament - 4 times over!

Now, that's not even mentioning the many more people who are too unwell to work (and pay tax) as well as all the productivity time lost to sick leave.

This article from 6 years ago says the economy is losing $500,000,000 A DAY from time taken off due to mental health.

Combined with money lost from suicide that's $180,000,000,000 (180 billion) a year!

So, seeing as industry and the government are so money obsessed, how can we get the government to actually see this $180 billion dollars and say "Hey! We like money! We want that! Maybe we should do something about mental health!"?

I'm open to ideas...

3 replies

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In response to: What can normal people do get the government(s) to give a s*#t about mental health?

Ed1975Senior Contributor27 May 2025, 5:22 pm AEST

Re: What can normal people do get the government(s) to give a s*#t about mental health?

@Jlol if we can stop pharmaceutical companies donating to political parties, we may see a change. But I wouldn't hold your breath.

In response to: Re: What can normal people do get the government(s) to give a s*#t about mental health?

mazza3Contributor27 May 2025, 6:32 pm AEST

Re: What can normal people do get the government(s) to give a s*#t about mental health?

Sadly mental health has never been a priority. Lots of promises but no actual commitment.

In response to: What can normal people do get the government(s) to give a s*#t about mental health?

AuntJobiskaSenior Contributor02 June 2025, 12:46 pm AEST

Re: What can normal people do get the government(s) to give a s*#t about mental health?

What you forget about in all your lovely maths about all the resources we could have with the taxes from those people who died by suicide… is all the services those people would need, if they were still alive… all the NDIS, Centrelink benefits, aged care services etc etc … an elderly person on the pension who “doesn’t” die by suicide is costing the government tens of thousands each year in pension and services, they’re not a net benefit to the system, and even young people who don’t suicide… over their lifetime, it’s quite likely they’re not giving more than they take… the reality is that our current tax system isn’t capable of providing for the individual, over their lifetime, that’s why we have this mass immigration program, because people cost more than they give in taxes… over their lifetime… (we’re in a ponzy scheme with immigration)…

Plus suicide rates are still significantly lower than they were in the 90s, they’re only high if you take a myopic approach

plus the unemployed are more likely to suicide, and you’re getting no tax from them

I agree with suicide prevention! but a bit of rational thinking is in order (four suicides in my family this millennium)

People in power only care about feathering their nests, that’s the reality,

and most suicide prevention is done to make it look like we’re doing something, it doesn’t actually save lives. Helplines don’t prevent suicides! (they only prevent attempts) but the suicidal are extremely vocal about how “of course” the help line saved their life… despite the fact that there’s absolutely no evidence they would have died without it, but who can argue with a very vocal suicide attempt survivor? There’s absolutely no evidence Mental Health First Aid helps people with mental illness, but hey, rolling out all these MHFA education programs makes it look like the government is doing something! And all the people doing the training feel like they’re doing something, so feel goods all round, just no help for people with mental illness.

What makes a difference is reducing the unemployment rate, and full employment is not a government policy - they need unemployment to keep the economy healthy, economists reckon. So until someone challenges that orthodoxy, we’ll always have suicide.

Basically our society is based on the rich getting richer and social justice policies are unpopular - we’ve become more selfish and less caring about people on the bottom.

Plus my personal gut instinct that the aspirational ethos just stresses everyone out in contemporary society. Put it this way - when I was a kid, aboriginal people didn’t live in houses, didn’t speak English, didn’t own cars… no phones, TV etc or even toilets… but no youth suicide either. They swapped the internet for youth suicide. But get someone to agree to life without a mobile phone nowadays…

As to what we can do, while we want higher and higher standards everywhere we’re going to stress people out. I’d suggest getting comfortable with mediocrity. Be less perfectionist as a culture. But I’m sure you’re attached to the drive to endlessly better standards in healthcare and the police, so like most people, you prefer a perfectionist world and suicide is the side effect.

Reality, suicide is a fact of life. It’s even something that I think needs to be more accessible, to people for whom it’s a well thought out, long term, considered choice. It’s not always a bad option. Yes, suicide in acute mental illness and impulsive suicides are tragedies, but not everyone who considers that they’ve come to the end of a meaningful life is in that category. So it’s… complicated!

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