’It ruins a lot of people’s lives’: The mental health tragedies rocking the bush

At just 22, Parkes man Geordie Horan says he has already been to too many funerals. All for mates who have taken their own lives. All young men.

At just 22, Geordie Horan says he has already been to too many funerals.

All for mates who have taken their own lives. All young men.

All from the town of Parkes, in the state’s central west, and the small communities which surround it.

The first one in 2015, a close friend.

In 2017 another blow came when his “really good mate”, Jaxon Taylor, took his own life.

Former Parkes resident Geordie Horan has lost too many mates to suicide. Picture: Jonathan Ng

“It feels like your world just stops. Everything comes to a standstill. It was absolute heartbreak,” he said.

Last year, another death — his cousin.

Each one causing renewed waves of heartbreak in the tightly-knit town of just 10,000, where a spate of suicides saw at least five young men take their own lives in recent years.

Mr Horan, who now lives in Wollongong, saw first-hand the impact it had on his mates. It’s why he’s calling for more support in the bush, especially for adolescents.

Statistics compiled by the Black Dog Institute show rates of suicide in regional communities remain 50 per cent higher than the city.

“It ruins a lot of people’s lives. It ruins a lot of people’s course in life that they happen to be taking. It’s obviously raw, it’s traumatic especially for young people,” Mr Horan said.

Parkes' Isaac Tulloch, who took his own life in 2019 aged 18, with his parents Simon and Mandy, and sisters Kayla and Laura.

“Living in the city, I’ve never met anyone dealing with something as raw as that, that many times.”

One of those losses was Isaac Tulloch, who took his own life in 2019 aged just 18.

“Isaac was a ball of energy right from when he first entered this world. He lived life to the fullest. He always came across as a very happy, jovial, kind type of person,” his mother Mandy said.

But a four year battle with his mental health underlined the difficulty in accessing mental health support in the bush. Isaac passed away during a spate of deaths in the country town.

“In particular, that period of July through to December 2019 there were three young people in this community between the ages of 17 and 19,” Mrs Tulloch said.

“It was a terrible time. I thought we have to do something or we’re going to continue to lose our youth.”

Despite new services coming to the town – headlined by a Safe Haven facility which opened last year as part of the NSW Government’s $143.3 million Towards Zero Suicides investment – Mrs Tulloch said locals still faced month-long waits for psychiatrists in the bush.

“A person in crisis doesn’t want to wait,” she said.

Shooters, Fishers and Farmers MP for Orange, Phil Donato, said there was “nowhere near enough in terms of support for people in the bush”.

“We’ve got nowhere near enough. I routinely have parents approaching me concerned about their kids,” he said.

Dr Aliza Werner-Seidler, an associate professor at the institute, said mental health in the bush still faced a “significant workforce issue”.

“The biggest difference between the cities and regional and remote communities is access to mental health care – psychiatrists, psychologists, and mental health nurses in particular,” she said.

Mental health and regional health Minister Bronnie Taylor said improvements had been made in recent years but “there’s still a long way to go”.

“We’re spending a bigger part of the health budget on mental health than ever before,” she said.

“Sometimes I think what the challenge is that people don’t know how to find support, and we have to do better in making sure people know those services are out there.”

A spokesman for Western NSW Local Health District said mental health support services are available 24 hours a day to anyone in the region, with specially trained registered nurses providing coverage at Parkes 24 hours a day.

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Originally published as ’It ruins a lot of people’s lives’: The mental health tragedies rocking the bush