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Is this Melbourne’s happiest suburb, or is it hiding a problem?
By Henrietta Cook, Aisha Dow and Craig Butt
Tarneit is one of Melbourne’s fastest growing outer suburbs: a place where families work hard and chase the suburban dream of owning a home on a sprawling estate.
Data suggests it might also accommodate the state’s happiest, or most mentally healthy residents.
Tarneit resident Marvin Magallanes loves the suburb due to its faith-based community and proximity to the great outdoors. Credit: Chris Hopkins
An analysis of census data as part of this masthead’s State of Our Health series shows that residents in the fringe suburb 25 kilometres west of the CBD have the lowest rates of mental health conditions in Victoria.
Between 2 and 3 per cent of Tarneit residents have a mental health condition compared with a statewide average of 9 per cent.
Experts say the suburb’s low rates of mental health conditions, however, might be pointing to a larger problem around access to healthcare and trouble obtaining diagnoses, rather than health and happiness.
For the first time, the 2021 census asked Australians to disclose whether they had been diagnosed with health conditions including asthma, cancer, heart disease, diabetes and dementia. The Age has unpacked the results to analyse why certain health conditions are more prevalent in some areas than others.
The Age’s data team has created a new tool that allows you to see how the health of residents in your suburb compares with the statewide average.
A sense of purpose
Marvin Magallanes, who has resided in Tarneit for the majority of the 23 years he has lived in Australia since migrating here from the Philippines, is not surprised by the census findings.
The IT worker believes high rates of employment, and an unwavering drive by the suburb’s many immigrants to create a better life for their children has given residents purpose and boosted their mental health.
“Most of the people here have jobs,” he says. “Everyone came to this place because it is cheap. They could buy their own block of land, their own piece of paradise and build their McMansion. There is a drive for everyone to be above everyone else.”
Magallanes says the natural beauty of his local council area, which takes in the Werribee River and the ocean and is not far from the You Yangs, also boosts people’s moods. “It’s glorious.”
Religion also plays a key role, according to Magallanes. More than 85 per cent of Tarneit residents describe themselves as religious, compared with the Australian average of 58 per cent. Christianity, Hinduism and Islam are the dominant religions.
Magallanes, who is a Pentecostal Christian and regularly attends Equip Church International in nearby Hoppers Crossing, says faith provides residents with purpose and strong connections with their neighbours.
“This is a god-fearing suburb, whether you are Christian, Hindu or Islamic,” he says. “It gives people a sense of community.”
Poorer health literacy
But Professor Alex Parker, a mental health expert from Victoria University, suspects that lower rates of health literacy in newly established suburbs such as Tarneit may be presenting a rosier picture of people’s mental health. While residents in Tarneit have a median weekly household income of $2103, they also experience high levels of mortgage stress, according to research by consumer group Choice.
“We know that in areas of social or economic disadvantage, the people living there are more likely to have poorer health literacy,” she says. “There’s a bit of a limitation around their own understanding and how to seek help, and that leads to under-detection and a lack of intervention.”
Australians who completed the most recent census in 2021 were asked whether they had been told by a doctor or nurse that they had a long-term mental health condition, including depression and anxiety.
Parker says unequal access to health services such as GPs could influence people’s responses to this question and explain why mental health conditions were more prevalent in certain parts of Melbourne.
“If they were asked whether they think they’ve been experiencing any mental health concerns, it may have led to different answers,” she adds.
Residents in Brunswick reported some of the state’s highest rates of mental health conditions. Around one in six locals said they had been diagnosed with a mental health condition—almost twice the statewide average.
Experts say people have been more willing to talk about mental health issues over the past decade.
Counselling psychologist Nigel Denning runs a psychology and psychiatry practice in East Melbourne but receives many referrals from the Brunswick area.
“It’s a relatively well-educated area, residents are politically active and have a very acute understanding of mental health,” he says.
Denning has noticed a significant shift in the way people discuss mental health over the past decade.
“They are more willing to talk about trauma, anxiety and depression,” he says. “It comes up regularly in conversation.”
Denning has another take on the distribution of mental health conditions across the state.
He wonders whether the mental health of Brunswick residents – who are much more likely to live in single-person households than Tarneit locals – took more of a battering during the pandemic.
Living alone
While just 10 per cent of Tarneit residents live in single person households, 34 per cent of Brunswick residents live alone. The statewide average is 25 per cent.
“People were restricted to small apartments for long periods of time and unable to socialise,” Denning says. “We are still seeing that fallout.”
Australian Association of Psychologists director Carly Dober says Brunswick residents are incredibly open about their mental health, which is a great thing.
“They talk about it more, attitudes are more liberal, and a lot of people come from quite well-off families. That allows them to access health services in the private sector,” she says.
She says many families from South-East Asia live in Tarneit and their cultures sometimes prioritise physical health over mental health. “There is still a lot of stigma,” she adds.
People in the outer-western suburb often have multiple jobs, which means they may not have time to address mental health issues, according to the psychologist, who has clients in Tarneit and Brunswick.
But she agrees with Magallanes, and says faith can be protective against mental health conditions. “We know that faith can be a very supporting and healing mechanism for mental health and stress in general ... it can send a hopeful message.”
If you or anyone you know needs support, call Lifeline on 131 114 or Beyond Blue on 1300 224 636.
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