This month’s inaugural CALI ‘Wild For Life 2025’ Conference tackled the complex and challenging issues surrounding Australia’s mental health crisis, considered from multiple perspectives including the workplace, the medical profession, the life insurance sector and the community.
A panel session at the conference, under the theme of Redefining Resilient Communities, sought to acknowledge the web of interconnected issues attaching to mental health and mental ill health, identify the challenges and map out a collaborative pathway forward.
The Causes
In order to give perspective to the nature and key drivers behind Australia’s mental health crisis, SuperFriend CEO, Darren Black, related his view that a combination of causes is responsible, noting the impact in recent years of the combined effect of issues and events including:
- The economic, emotional and psychological impact brought on by cost of living pressures
- The Covid-19 pandemic
- Recent natural disasters including devastating floods and some of the most catastrophic bushfires in Australia’s history
- Wars in Europe and the Middle East
- Dealing with the impact of Trump #2
- The rise of issues related to social media use
Black told the audience that such factors can create uncertainty, which can manifest in elevated rates of anxiety across the population. He noted that the community has done a better job of highlighting awareness of mental health conditions/illnesses over the last 10 – 15 years, and this increased community awareness has made social and community conversations more permissible.
He added, however, that increased awareness is accompanied by increased health-seeking behaviour, which in turn brings with it increased demand on the health care, life insurance and government compensation systems.
Agreeing with Black about the multiple factors which have contributed to the rise of Australia’s mental health crisis, AIA Health expert, Dr Preeya Alexander, also referred to Australia having reached a very high rate of loneliness and isolation.
She added that a lot of the workplace behaviours and concerns raised by Black are also shared with her in her consulting room, from which she shared many people are worried about the cost of living, housing affordability and what else is happening in the world, the combined effect of which impacts both people’s physical and mental wellbeing.
In dealing with the fallout from the mental health crisis itself, Dr Alexander said not enough time is being devoted to talking about prevention, where she emphasised simple, healthy physical and mental behaviours all contributed to better health and wellbeing.
CALI CEO, Christine Cupitt, spoke to the need for greater collaboration across stakeholders including workplace groups such as SuperFriend as well as the medical profession. She said CALI was involved in working with such groups to provide the community with an earlier, stronger safety net, as a way to address the exponentially growing number of younger people leaving the workforce. “That’s why it’s so important to have workplace mental health experts and the medical profession involved in such conversations. We’re here to pay claims,” said Cupitt.
…the worrying trend in the rise in mental health claims among young people
TAL Group CEO and MD, Fiona Macgregor, echoed Cupitt’s views in confirming the elevated level of claims around mental illness. She noted in particular the worrying trend in the rise in mental health claims among young people, borne out by TAL’s own recent claims experience, together with findings released late last year by CALI in association with KPMG which revealed a greater than 730% increase in the rate of mental health-related permanent disability claims for 30-40 year olds (see also: TPD Claims for Mental Health Jump…).
Permanence
The panel also addressed the challenges surrounding the issue of permanency, both from the life insurer’s perspective in terms of significant and subjective challenges facing claims managers in determining whether a claimant’s TPD claim was indeed permanent.
The issue of permanency was also considered through the lens of the claimant and the once again significant issues that may attach to a person being ‘labelled’ with the term permanent in relation to their mental health illness/condition, and the impact this may have on their ability to continue to work and on their personal relationships.
Contributing to a Solution
…there is no silver bullet which would fix the mental health/TPD dilemma
Cupitt told the conference delegates there is no silver bullet which would fix the mental health/TPD dilemma, but that it was critical for the sector to listen to what customers need and want in terms of greater product flexibility and more options.
Macgregor agreed on this point, adding that she saw great opportunities through employers and workplaces associated with the group insurance market, where there exists room for a lot of preventative health activity, combined with implementing other workplace health and wellbeing measures.
In seeking to offer practical solutions, Black pointed to an industry sector case study, which clearly demonstrated a correlation between the implementation of a building and construction industry education peer support and awareness program and the improvement in the wellbeing and mental health outlook of those working in that sector:
Something has made a material difference and has almost certainly saved lives
“Hundreds of building and construction worksites nationally and in excess of 300,000 have been through that program,” said Black, adding that independently and objectively, “…we think that has made a difference. It’s what the data says. Something has made a material difference and has almost certainly saved lives.”
As Macgregor supported the need for further thinking about product design which supports better health and better recovery options, the panel strongly agreed with Black’s closing comment around the fact that “There’s strength in coming together.”
