HMN 2026: How It’s time to remove the barriers to mental health awareness for all young people

Adolescence is a critical stage when many lifelong challenges first emerge, including mental health difficulties.

While these can affect young people from all walks of life, not everyone experiences or responds to them in the same way.

Imagine being a teenager struggling with anxiety or depression, but not knowing what it is, how to get help or even who to talk to.

For many Australian adolescents from culturally and linguistically diverse (CALD) backgrounds, this is a reality.

Our recent research shows they are significantly less likely to recognize common mental health problems—like depression, suicidal thoughts and anxiety—and more likely to hold stigmatizing beliefs toward people who experience mental health challenges.

Positively, when equipped to identify these challenges, teenagers from culturally and linguistically diverse (CALD) backgrounds are as likely to seek help and offer peer support as teenagers from non-CALD backgrounds.

Understanding these hidden gaps is crucial if we want all young Australians to thrive.

Identifying gaps in mental health awareness

Australia is a diverse country.

More than 22% of our population speak a language other than English at home, 31.5% were born overseas and more than half (51.5%) have a parent born overseas.

The stress of transitioning to a new culture or country can negatively impact mental health, particularly among the young, making those from diverse communities more vulnerable to mental health problems than their non-CALD peers.

Previous research on multicultural mental health in immigrant countries like Australia has largely focused on adults, who often display lower mental health awareness and stronger stigmatizing attitudes toward people with mental health problems.

But the gaps in mental health awareness and stigma among culturally diverse youth have been much less explored.

Adolescents tend to interact more with peers from their host culture while forming their identities, and it’s often assumed they adapt faster to the host cultural environment than their parents.

This raises an important question: Do similar disparities in mental health knowledge and attitudes exist among adolescents from multicultural backgrounds?

Our study explored how CALD adolescents understand conditions like depression, anxiety and suicidal thoughts, their willingness to seek help, and whether they held stigmatizing attitudes toward people with mental health problems. The work is published in the journal Social Psychiatry and Psychiatric Epidemiology.

Barriers to mental health awareness

Our study included more than 3,100 Year 10 students from six Victorian metropolitan and four regional senior secondary schools.

Students were presented with descriptions of two fictional characters with symptoms of depression (with suicidal ideation) or anxiety, and then were asked, “What do you think is wrong with the person?”

Our findings revealed a clear pattern.

Australia’s diverse youth were significantly less likely to recognize common mental health problems than non-CALD youth. If we look at the statistics, it was 64% versus 84% for depression and 37% versus 62% for anxiety.

However, we also found that Australia’s diverse youth were just as willing to seek help and support others when they were able to recognize mental health concerns.

Recognizing mental health problems early is vital; without it, young people may delay seeking help, meaning some of these problems could escalate.

But we also identified that CALD adolescents face multiple barriers to recognizing and responding to mental health challenges, including limited knowledge, stronger stigma and lower confidence in offering support.

If left unaddressed, these barriers can prevent young people from accessing help and further widen mental health inequalities.

Developing culturally sensitive solutions

Our research highlights the need for mental health programs tailored to the needs of CALD communities.

For example, the teen Mental Health First Aid (tMHFA) program is an evidence-based training course that equips secondary school students with the knowledge, skills and confidence to recognize, understand and respond to a friend or classmate experiencing a mental health problem or crisis.

A clinical trial among Australian youth shows that this program is effective in recognizing mental health problems earlier, reducing stigma and building confidence in supporting their peers.

Another trial involving youth in the US produced similar results.

Our team is currently evaluating whether the tMHFA program works as well for multicultural youth as it does for the broader Australian youth population.

Specifically, we are exploring potential cultural adaptations to ensure the program meets the unique needs of diverse communities.

By making evidence-based programs culturally sensitive and accessible, we can help young CALD people build the knowledge and skills to manage mental health challenges and provide high-quality support to their peers.

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