Each year, approximately one in every five Australians will experience a mental illness.

Mental illness can be treated. This means that many people who have a mental illness, and are treated, will recover well or even completely.

However, given the many different factors contributing to the development of mental illness, it can sometimes be difficult to predict how, when, or to what degree someone is going to get better.

Whenever one feels mentally unwell, the usual approach is to obtain advice from a General Practitioner (GP) or Psychologist. Frequently though, further interventions will require the opinion of a Psychiatrist, particularly for diagnosis and treatment of mental disorder.

Psychiatrists are doctors that specialise in treating mental disorder.