A targeted approach to mental illness in rural Tasmania will be an important step towards bridging the gap between remote and metropolitan areas, according to the Royal Flying Doctor Service.
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A new research paper, Mental health in remote and rural communities, released by the service, found rates of mental illness were the same in country areas as in cities, but self-harm and suicide rates were higher in rural and remote areas of Australia.
The research studied 2567 regional Australians flown by the RFDS for emergency mental health treatment from July 2013 to June 2016.
Australians living in remote locations had access to mental health services at a fifth of the rate city dwellers had, the researchers found.
RFDS Tasmanian chief executive John Kirwan said the report highlighted the impact a lack of resources in rural areas had on mental health outcomes.
“The main take home message is incident rates aren’t higher, but outcome rates are higher in rural and remote areas because of a lack of services,” he said.
“Our approach to that is there needs to be better coordination, better targeting of those services and earlier interventions so we can actually manage these areas.”
Mr Kirwan said early intervention and early treatment was integral to bridging the gap.
“That’s always a challenge for us in Tasmania and what we’re looking at is how can you provide outreach services in the community, because, as the report mentions there’s also issues of stigma.
“To address the problem you have to name the problem and this and our other reports do that.
“The ability to have that approach that allows us to look at those causes in that holistic way and get all the different services joined up and I think we’re at the beginning of that journey, not the end of it.”
“It’s got a lot more profile and a lot more funding into mental health, but we’re yet to get that mix right.”
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