Rates of mental ill health among young people are on the rise. Between the years 2020 and 2022, 39% of Australians aged 16 to 24 had a mental disorder in the previous year, compared to 26% in that age range in 2007, and 27% of those aged 18–24 in 1997.
The recent Lancet Psychiatry commission on youth mental health documents equally steep increases in mental illness in the United States, UK and Denmark. Governments, mental health services, educational institutions and parents are struggling to respond. But what is behind these trends?
