Australia has launched its first clinical practice guidelines to better support and treat young people in mental health crisis, as hospitalizations for intentional self-harm continue to rise nationwide.
The new advice will aid healthcare professionals to identify, assess and manage acute mental health symptoms in young patients aged up to 19 years, said a statement from Australia's Murdoch Children's Research Institute (MCRI) released Wednesday.
Young people with lived experience of suicidal ideation or hospitalization were directly consulted in designing the document "in order to bridge the gap between evidence and real-world application," said MCRI researcher Sydney Stevens.
"These guidelines offer a range of practical and responsive recommendations that can be disseminated and used to improve care," Stevens said.
The new advice, developed by MCRI, the Royal Children's Hospital and the University of Melbourne, includes risk assessments tailored to individual circumstances, support for responding to suicidal distress and self-harm in community settings, and guidance for consistent emergency care and medication prescribing.
Experts said many young people had felt "failed and hurt" by a lack of tailored care.
Stevens added that improving youth mental health would require collaboration among policymakers, clinicians and families to improve the whole system of care.