- Statistics show that there is an increase in mental illness related contacts with community mental health services and hospital presentations since 2006 http://mhsa.aihw.gov.au/WorkArea/DownloadAsset.aspx?id=27917288199

- “In 2011-12, 70.1% of Australians (or 11.9 million people) aged 18 years and over experiences a low level of psychological distress according to the K10. Around one in ten adults (10.8% or 1.8 million people) experienced high or very high levels of psychological distress…” (abs, 2011, 13). The report also indicated that there were more females than males who experienced high psychological distress (12.7% and 8.8% respectively) (Australian Bureau of Statistics, 2011, 13). (Table 1- Level of Psychological Distress using the K10).

- In 2011-13 Australia conducted the Australian Health Survey which was aimed at collecting a range of health related information from Australians’ (Australian Bureau of Statistics, 2011). The Survey was a self-assessed health survey used to measure overall health and wellbeing, thereby represented the person’s perception of their own health and wellbeing as opposed to a medical professional. The Survey used the ‘Kessler Psychological Distress Scale (K10, a questionnaire aimed at measuring people’s nervousness, agitation, psychological fatigue and depression over the past four weeks’ (abs, 2011, 13).