Interventions for better life-time mental health outcomes for young Australians with disability

This interdisciplinary research team, many with lived experience of disability, are partnering with youth with disability to develop new knowledge about the barriers and facilitators of key life transitions across education, work, and family at this critical life stage. We are applying innovative methods to analyse data generated from the integration of administrative, text-based (e.g. media, policy documents) databases, longitudinal studies (e.g. HILDA), and qualitative lived experience studies with young people with disability to provide a comprehensive picture of the diverse and interacting social, economic, and cultural factors impacting mental health for Australian youth with disability aged 15–24 years.

Young Australians with disability face greater difficulty in establishing themselves socially and economically as they transition to adulthood than their non-disabled peers, underpinning life-long mental health disadvantage and significant societal costs. This interdisciplinary research team, many with lived experience of disability, will partner with youth with disability to develop new knowledge about the barriers and facilitators of key life transitions across education, work, and family, at this critical life stage. The problem is made even more urgent because the harsh impacts of COVID-19 on young people are likely to see young people with disability falling further behind their peers. Furthermore, young people with disability are not specifically targeted in government investments in disability reform (e.g., National Disability Insurance Scheme) and reform goals will not be realised without specific attention to this population.

We will apply innovative methods to analyse data generated from the integration of administrative, text-based (e.g., media, policy documents) databases, longitudinal studies (e.g., Household, Income and Labour Dynamics in Australia Survey) and qualitative lived experience studies with young people with disability to provide a comprehensive picture of the diverse and interacting, social, economic and cultural factors impacting mental health for youth with disability aged 15-24 years. Analyses will generate new knowledge about promising policy and practice interventions (e.g., employment or mental health programs, media guidelines for reporting on disability). We will identify short and long-term mental health effects of these interventions through simulation of policies using observed data, re-examination of text-based data, and qualitative interviews. Outcomes of the research will be a suite of scalable policy and practice interventions that achieve better mental health for young people with disability and across the life-course.

• Hannah Badland
• Amanda Alderton
• Elroy Dearn

2022 - 2027

NHMRC Synergy Grant