Mental health and Community Connection
Mental health and community connection are essential to how people live, connect, participate, and thrive in their communities. Yet across our city, many people are facing challenges that are significantly affecting their mental health. For some, these challenges are shaped by pressures like financial stress, housing insecurity, and social isolation. For others, they are compounded by experiences of trauma, displacement, and discrimination. These issues don't exist in isolation; they are deeply connected to the conditions in which people live, work, and engage with others.
Hume City is a diverse and resilient city, but we know that some groups face greater risks and barriers when it comes to mental health. The data helps us understand the scale of these challenges and where support is most needed. Around one in five adults experience high or very high levels of psychological distress, slightly above the state average. While localised data is limited, state-level insights show that LGBTIQA+ adults are significantly more likely to report high or very high levels of psychological distress compared to their heterosexual, non-LGBTIQA+ peers.
Hume City is also home to the state's highest number of humanitarian refugees. We know that refugee and migrant communities often face increased mental health risks shaped by pre-migration trauma, displacement, and post-settlement stressors such as financial insecurity, housing instability, and limited access to culturally safe services.
Social connection plays a critical role in mental health and wellbeing, and for some people in our community, social isolation is a real challenge. One in four adults in Hume reports feeling lonely, which is higher than the state average. Residents report lower satisfaction in areas such as health, safety, and community connection, while scoring higher in personal relationships.
Mental health and social connection contribute to a broader range of factors that shape our overall wellbeing. Supporting better mental health means addressing the root causes that impact mental wellbeing, removing barriers to access and participation, and creating environments where people feel safe, supported, and connected.
Key Statistics
7.0% of the Hume City population lives with a long-term mental health condition, compared to 8.8% across all of Victoria
25.8% of residents report experiencing loneliness, compared to 23.3% across Victoria
73.4% of residents had high or very high life satisfaction, compared to 75.2% across Victoria
According to the Personal Wellbeing Index, compared to the rest of Australia, Hume City has lower levels of life satisfaction across the standard of living, health, personal safety, community connectedness and future security domains.
Detailed Context
Psychological Distress
According to the 2023 Victorian Population Health Survey, around one-fifth of adults in Hume City (20.9%) are reported to have high or very high levels of psychological distress as measured using the Kessler Psychological Distress Scale (K10). This is marginally higher than the 19.1% recorded for Victoria. Just over two-fifths of Hume City adults (42.9%) are reported to have low levels of psychological distress, significantly lower than Victoria at 49.7%. Around one in five adults in Hume City (20.9%) have sought professional help for a mental health problem in the last 12-month period, comparable to Victoria at 20.1%.
Proportion of people by level of psychological distress, 2023
Long-term mental health conditions
7.0% of Hume’s population lives with a long-term mental health condition, compared to 8.8% across all of Victoria. The data also highlights that long-term mental health conditions are more prevalent among specific population groups in Hume. Among First Nations peoples, 16.3% report having a mental health condition, compared to 7.2% of non-First Nations residents. Among people with disabilities, 27.7% report a mental health condition, compared to just 5.7% of people without disabilities. In Hume, rates of long-term mental health condition are highest in Sunbury (11.6%), Coolaroo (9.2%) and Westmeadows (9.0%).
Self-harm
Rates of self-harm in Hume are 1.01 per 1,000 females and 0.43 per 1,000 males. In Victoria, this rate is 1.4 for females and 0.6 for males.
Life satisfaction and loneliness
According to the 2023 Victorian Population Health Survey around one in four adults in Hume City experience loneliness (25.8%), compared to 23.3% across Victoria. Furthermore, one in four adults have low-medium levels of life satisfaction (24.0%) vs 21.9% across Victoria, whilst 73.9% of Hume residents had high or very high life satisfaction, compared to 76.7% across Victoria.
The Personal Wellbeing Index (PWI) is a measure of life satisfaction across seven domains of wellbeing. The PWI score for Hume City of 73.4 in 2024, sits just below the national average of 75.2 recorded in 2023 by the Australian Unity Wellbeing Index research team. Compared to the national data, Hume City has lower levels of life satisfaction across the standard of living, health, personal safety, community connectedness and future security domains. Hume City has a higher level of satisfaction on the personal relationships’ domain. The lowest scoring domains for Hume City are the community connectedness and future security domains.