JUST as you can’t have health without mental health, you can’t have health reform without mental health reform,’’ Professor Patrick McGorry, the 2010 Australian of the Year, said.‘‘If mental health were to be excluded or an afterthought in the health reform debate then that would be a disaster.‘‘Another lost generation of young lives thrown on the scrap heap.’’Professor McGorry points to suicide, too often a desperate culmination of mental ill health.It causes more deaths among Australians aged up to 44 every year than cancer and heart disease combined.Suicide even trumps road accidents, often highlypublicised in the media, as for every young adultwho dies on the road another two take their own lives.These figures are startling but they are also typicallyoverlooked as part of the health debate, Professor McGorry says. He says the political and media focus instead rests on over-burdened public hospitals.Discussion about waiting lists rarely touched on mental health because often ‘‘there is no queue because there is nowhere to go’’, he said.Professor McGorry said suicide was also a ‘‘taboo’’ topic in many families, and these factors combined to ensure there was little recognition of the scale of the problem or of the need to fix it.‘‘It is inexplicable really,’’Professor McGorry said when asked why mental health failed to resonate as a public health issue.‘‘Because when you talk to people, either they have hadmental ill health or they or their relatives have been directly affected.‘‘It is much more prevalent than a lot of problems which are receiving lots more media attention, like various forms of cancer and elective surgery.’’Professor McGorry said one million Australians aged 12 to 25 would suffer mental ill health in any given year, yet research showed only a quarter of these would receive any professional help.Many young people progressed from developing amental health problem through to suicide without any contact with a medical professional.The need for family support can also be tragicallyoverlooked, says Professor McGorry, who is aninternationally renowned expert in adolescent mentalhealth. ‘‘I’ve met so many parents who describe how their youngadult children died and, in retrospect, they discover theywere quite depressed or unwell for a significant periodbeforehand but they were unable to share that with theirfamily,’’ he said.‘‘So this inhibition of talking about mental ill health andsuicide in general has been a killer.’’Figures released by Lifeline show there were 1022confirmed cases of suicide among those aged up to 44years in 2007, plus another 362 lives lost in possible suicides recorded as exposure to noxious substances oraccidental poisonings.Compare this to the 585 younger adult Australians whodied in road accidents in the same year, the 678 deaths from cancer and the 444 who died from heart disease.It is estimated about 30 Australians attempt suicideevery day, and about six are successful.Yet Australia was poised to make ‘‘deep inroads’’ into thisrate of suicide, said Professor McGorry, who believes hisrecognition as Australian of the Year reflected a growing desire in the community to act.He is calling on politicians to commit to a $200 million a year increase in funding for mental health services.This would triple the number of clinics — from 30 to 90 — that are operating nationwide as part of the successfulHeadspace program.These centres were typically located in shopping centresand they were designed to be ‘‘youth-friendly soft-entry’’.‘‘But behind that frontline there is real clinical expertise.’’The extra money would also be spent on a significantexpansion of specialised treatment facilities for youngpeople experiencing early psychosis, and other seriousmental health illnesses such as schizophrenia.Professor McGorry said the Federal Government deservedsome credit for its existing funding of these centres, but it was a ‘‘toe in the water’’.? For emotional crisis telephone support contact Lifeline 24 hours a day, seven days a week, on 13 11 14 or visit their website at www.lifeline.org.au