The Royal Commission into Victoria’s Mental Health System identified a number of issues within our current system, including:

• There is not enough focus on the promotion of good mental health and wellbeing. These issues are incredibly serious, but not prioritized.

• Community-based services are under resourced

• The system has become unbalanced, with an over-reliance on medication as opposed to alternative, more holistic approaches

• Demand for help has overtaken capacity

• Existing services are poorly integrated and do not reflect local needs

• The current system is outdated and in need of reform

• Families, carers and supporters are left out

• Underprivileged communities are disproportionately affected by a lack of access to knowledge of and treatment for mental health issues

• There is a limited focus on the early years, and younger people are being adversely affected

Furthermore, mental health is closely linked with physical activity. There is a direct correlation between demographics who are suffering mentally and those who are not engaging in regular movement and exercise, and sports participation rates have also decreased dramatically since the pandemic, according to official sources including VicHealth.

The demographic within our community who are found to be engaging in the least physical activity are parents with dependent children. This impacts not only the wellbeing of the parent and consequently quite often the relationship between parent and child, but also affects the example being set for the children’s own lifestyle habits, leading to cyclical decline in both mental health and physical wellbeing over time, as shown below.