Mental Health Australia

Free Information Mental Health Disorders & Mental Illness

Welcome to the Mental Health Australia portal, a not-for-profit independent resource for Australian's interested in mental health issues. On this site you will find a wide range of resources for mental health professionals, persons suffering from mental health issues, carers, friends and families of people affected by a mental health disorder.

Mental health problems develop through a combination of complex interactions between biological, environmental, psychological and social factors. Anyone, regardless of age, creed, colour or religion can be affected by a mental health issue at any time. It is seldom possible to identify a single principal cause of any one mental health problem and whilst a number of risk factors has been associated with a higher likelihood of developing mental health problems this does not mean that these factors cause mental illness.

Most mental health problems will have a range of contributing factors that will vary from person to person. These may include an inherited vulnerability to certain problems, upsetting personal events in an individual's past or present such as family or marriage breakdown, specific stress in a person's life at any given time, anxiety over a specific issue and the person's own circumstances and personality.

Stress is also considered to often contribute to mental health problems. Sometimes a particular stress, such as loosing a job or marriage breakdown or an accumulation of stresses may be the main cause. Or other factors may be more important and the stress simply acts as a trigger that is the last issue in a long line of events that leads to a personal breakdown.

Autism Spectrum Disorder, or ASD, is another problem that is relatively common in children and adults.

• Adult Mental Health
• Older Persons Mental Health
• Children and Mental Health