Mental health crisis Reluctance to seek help in remote areas a problem

A LACK of mental health services in remote Australia has left many people to seek help only in crisis, with emergency flying doctors left to pick up the slack.

Mount Isa and Townsville were revealed as the top five spots in the country for patient transfers and drop offs for treatment of mental or behavioural disorders, new research has revealed.

Research by the Royal Flying Doctor Service, released in the Medical Journal of Australia today, found there was almost no difference in the prevalence of mental health problems between the city and the bush, but it was poor mental health service access, distance and cost that led to a reluctance to seek help.

“The absence of access to local dedicated mental health support and intervention services, many patients seek clinical assistance only when in crisis,” the report found.

“The numbers of general practitioners, psychiatrists, psychologists, mental health nurses and social workers are low in many rural and remote areas, as are those of emergency departments and hospitals.”

It was found the RFDS retrieved 2257 patients for treatment of mental or behavioural disorders in three years, twothirds of them men and 60 per cent under the age of 40.

Most retrieval sites were rural and remote communities.

Townsville ranked fifth for the most number of patients received (134) while Mount Isa was fifth for most number of patients retrieved (74). The most frequent mental and behavioural disorders were schizophrenia, bipolar affective disorder, and depressive episodes.

Psychoactive substance misuse, including misuse of multiple drugs, alcohol and cannabis also triggered patient retrievals.

“Many patients in rural and remote areas must travel more than 60 minutes to reach acute general medical services, and those who need more intensive acute psychiatric or addiction care may be referred for aeromedical retrieval to obtain definitive care or to exclude other organic causes,” the report found.

Researchers argued flying patients from remote areas to manage medical episodes relating to substance misuse disorders were a “costly and ineffective approach”.

Port Augusta, Port Pirie, Mount Gambier and Port Lincoln were the top four locations for patient retrievals due to mental health issues for the RFDS between 2014 and 2017.