The health and well-being of young Australians: present patterns and future challenges.

The orthodox view of the health and wellbeing of young Australians is one of continuing improvement. This picture underestimates the importance of adverse trends in a range of chronic physical and mental health problems. These have their sources in quite fundamental features of western societies, and optimizing health will mean making correspondingly fundamental social and cultural changes. To achieve this transformation, the politics of health must be seen as much more than the politics of healthcare services. Medicine and other health professions need better to recognize this if they are to continue to be part of the solution to better health, and not become part of the problem.