Loneliness and stigma hurting people’s mental health in rural South Australia
MENTAL health workers have met men who have not had a conversation with anyone in as long as 11 days, an inquiry into mental health services in rural and regional Australia has heard.
MENTAL health workers have met men who have not had a conversation with anyone in as long as 11 days, an inquiry into mental health services in rural and regional Australia has heard.
SA Mental Health Commission executive director Amelia Traino told the hearing in Whylla that family breakdown, drugs and alcohol were other factors, along with loneliness.
“I had a staff member who went to a rural town, to one of our events, in a library, and someone spoke to her — an elderly gentleman who said that he hadn’t actually spoken to anyone in five days,” she said.
“She rang me on her way to the next event, which was at a different rural town, in the afternoon, in the library, and we talked about how that’s really unusual and how terrible … and then she spoke to an elderly gentleman who said that he hadn’t spoken to anyone in 11 days.
“So reflecting on the question about why our suicide rate is higher in SA in rural areas than in other places perhaps, maybe it’s something to do with that.”
She said one answer could be better community support and connectedness.
She said issues around stigma could stop people seeking help because they worried it would become “common knowledge” in a small town.
“We are looking at building strength of communities and building connectedness, and we heard that people felt disconnected and it contributed to their lack of mental health and wellbeing,” she said.
She added that building local knowledge would break down the stigma.
Chez Curnow, from the Country SA Primary Health Network, said they had looked at about 200 deaths over a decade in the north of the state.
“Overwhelmingly, you would see they would be male. A very small proportion would be female,” she told the public hearing.
“The age range sits between 31 and 50 years of age for deaths by suicide in this region.
“Forty-three per cent are employed and most of them are dying at home.”
She said stoicism, stigma, declining rural communities and other suicides increased the risk.
But most of all, it was lack of access to services, she said.
“That really does have a massive impact on suicide rates in regional, rural and remote SA.
“If someone is at risk and can’t access the service, or the only service is a police station, then there is no service,” she said.
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