Funding support for rural health

FROM bushfires and floods to financial hardship, mouse plagues and global pandemics, life has thrown challenges at Aussies living in remote and regional areas in recent years.

And while some areas may be showing green shoots, experts warn the mental health recovery is only starting.

Research shows people living outside Australia’s major capital cities are 1.5 times more likely to commit suicide, and that rate only increases the more remote you become.

News Corp Australia has announced a $1m mental health and wellbeing grant to Rural & Remote Mental Health to support its lifechanging work. The grant adds to the $3.2m the company has donated to assist the ongoing recovery of areas devastated by the Black Summer bushfires.

RRMH chief executive Joe Hooper said he was thrilled the organisation was partnering with News Corp, publisher of the Cairns Post.

“With News Corp’s generous support, we will deliver mental health literacy and suicide prevention programs in bushfire-affected communities over the next two years,” Mr Hooper said.

He said RRMH focused on community-based prevention.

News Corp Australia community ambassador Penny Fowler said many in rural and remote communities were constantly reminded of the trauma and devastation of the bushfires, with significant impacts on their mental health.

“News Corp Australia has extensively supported the immediate recovery but communities were telling us of a greater challenge,” she said.

“This latest funding will make a tangible difference to the lives and livelihoods of those in bushfire-impacted communities as well as transforming Rural & Remote Mental Health’s capacity to deliver their vital services.”