HEALTH in the bush isn’t something that can be ignored.
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Not only are we are geographically isolated when things go awry and we need urgent emergency attention.
But we are also falling short on the resource front for mental health – an issue that is becoming increasingly entrenched in rural areas.
A boundary change introduced when Medicare Local became Hunter New England and Central Coast Primary Health Network has made our patch much larger.
It had a “catastrophic result in our area”, according to coalface health workers.
The changes mean funding and resources are now spread across a far greater area, depriving some rural communities of the same level of access to healthcare – including support around mental health.
Two Tamworth psychologists, Nell Gaff and Amanda Jefferys, have now taken up the fight for better mental health resources under the current federal funding models with New England MP Barnaby Joyce, health minister Sussan Ley and assistant rural health minister Dr David Gillespie.
Mental health has never been more relevant in rural regions.
Isolation, the ‘she’ll-be-right’ attitude and limited resources are some of the factors behind why suicide in remote areas is significantly higher than in non-remote areas.
Alarmingly, the Hunter New England region has a rate of suicide higher than the national average, according to the two women.
The region’s two psychologists spearheading the fight for more resources should be applauded for ensuring our voice is heard on such a matter of importance.
When these psychologists go to regional communities, they don’t just provide what comes under a federal government project.
They often provide support on a myriad of other matters, like medicare, health cover or veteran’s affairs. There is no cookie-cutter way of dealing with mental health. Satelliting out clinicians from Tamworth to smaller regions once a week or several days a week without providing any other type of care is not cutting it, locals say.
Critics of the changes had hoped the primary health network would foster clinicians to live in outlying areas like Barraba, Moree and Narrabri. That hasn’t been the case and people are suffering because of it. But what is positive, is that the issue of mental health in the bush is finally being talked about.
May it continue.