Innovation: Beyond Blue

Australia

AAI Domains:

• Independent, healthy and secure living (mental well-being, improving access to health care services)

• Participation in society (voluntary activity, social connectedness)

Depression and other common mental disorders affect hundreds of millions of people of all ages around the globe. The World Health Organisation estimates that at least 350 million people around the world experience depression and it is particularly prevalent in the most affluent states where diagnoses rates are generally much higher than in the less economically developed nations.

Depression is the leading cause of disability worldwide in terms of total number of years lost due to disability with diagnosis rates for women approximately twice as high as they are for men. However, it is a condition that can be effectively treated although there continues to be a widespread reluctance to acknowledge how commonplace it is due to a combination of factors including stigma and lack of knowledge. Consequently there is an urgent need to develop social innovations that address depression and other common mental disorders, such as anxiety, in order to improve the quality of life of people over the life course and help reduce the millions of lives lost each year to suicide.

Beyond Blue is an independent partnership of the Commonwealth (national) and territory (state) governments of Australia that was founded in 2000 by the former Victorian Prime Minister Jeff Kennett to address depression and other emotional disorders over the whole of the life course. Beyond Blue started by addressing the issue of depression through building greater public understanding of the condition but over time it has developed to cover a range of common mental disorders from childhood through to old age.

The Kids Matter programme for infant school pupils and the Mind Matters initiative for secondary school students start the process of awareness of mental health issues. The core programmes for adults include an online forum, blueVoices, that encourages volunteering in a range of mental health awareness and promotion projects and a support service. The support service targets awareness campaigns at the general population and is supplemented by projects that target groups that are at greater risk of poor mental health such as the LGBT community, male-dominated workplaces where acknowledging mental ill health can be difficult and Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders who are particularly likely to experience social exclusion and poor health.

The Taking Action to Tackle Suicide programme is part of a wider Commonwealth government strategy to reduce the number of suicides and there are a large number of health awareness campaigns and promotion projects that operate under the organisational umbrella of Beyond Blue. Beyond Blue has also developed a programme for older people, Over Bloody Eighty (OBE), that recognises that they can experience intense loneliness and depression if they live in the community or in institutional care. There is also a Professional Education to Aged Care programme that trains members of staff in institutional care settings in the recognition of mental health conditions and how they can be addressed.

In relation to active ageing, Beyond Blue takes a life course approach to improving mental well-being and provides people with a wide range of opportunities for voluntary activity. It seeks to strengthen social connections between people who due to depression can feel isolated and alone in life and it aims to improve access to care services so that common mental health issues can be addressed.

Beyond Blue website