CENTRE FOR RURAL & REMOTE MENTAL HEALTH Quarterly Report January – March 2020 About the CRRMH The Centre for Rural and Remote Mental Health (CRRMH) is based in Orange NSW and is a major rural initiative of the University of Newcastle and the NSW Ministry of Health. Our staff are located across rural and remote NSW. The Centre is committed to improving mental health and wellbeing in rural and remote communities. We focus on the following key areas: • the promotion of good mental health and the prevention of mental illness; • developing the mental health system to better meet the needs of people living in rural and remote regions; and • understanding and responding to rural suicide. Centre for Rural and Remote Mental Health As the Australian Collaborating Centre for the International Foundation for PO Box 8043 Integrated Care, we promote patient-centred rather than provider-focused Orange East NSW 2800 care that integrates mental and physical health concerns. T +61 2 6363 8444 E [email protected] As part of the University of Newcastle, all of our activities are underpinned by research evidence and evaluated to ensure appropriateness and effectiveness. crrmh.com.au @crrmh @crrmhnsw /company/crrmh 2 | Centre for Rural & Remote Mental Health Quarterly Report: January – March 2020 Contents Report Page Director’s Report 4 Snapshot of the Quarter 5 Research 6 John Hoskin Library 7 Connections 8 Communications 10 Online Connections 12 Partnerships 14 Rural Adversity Mental Health Program (RAMHP) 17 Staff News 19 Appendix 21 3 | Centre for Rural & Remote Mental Health Quarterly Report: January – March 2020 Director’s Report Centre Director Professor David Perkins “One thing after another…’ does not do justice to the combination of adverse events that have impacted on rural communities in the first quarter of 2020. When many communities thought that things could not possibly get worse, along came COVID-19. In a few short weeks we moved from emergency response mode to physical distancing and lockdown. At the same time, the normal range of mental health problems continued but were supplemented with additional and widespread problems. The number of people linked to services by RAMHP workers increased by 70% during this period which is an indicator of community need and program responsiveness. Additionally, information was made available for community members through the production of three new factsheets, a podcast made in association with the ABC, and a series of heartfelt blogs from several of our RAMHP Coordinators and CRRMH staff. These are all available on our dedicated COVID-19 mental health and wellbeing website page. While these adverse events are often understood as disasters or emergencies requiring an acute response, we know that many will have long-term effects such as the loss of jobs and businesses, the reduction in tourist numbers and challenges to the viability of rural and remote communities. We received many comments to the effect that while the consequences of drought and fire were still very real for rural people, attention had moved to COVID-19 with its daily newsfeed of statistics, graphs and speculation. Since all but two of CRRMH staff live in rural locations, these were not theoretical challenges but personal experiences that affect homes, families and neighbourhoods. For many there is no escape and various government and charitable spending programs have made the service provider environment more complicated. There are new services, whether resident or visiting, short or longer-term which make it more difficult to navigate services or find appropriate help. It has been important to ensure that new ways of working are safe. In a conventional training situation, such as in the training our RAMHP Coordinators would normally provide, it is possible to see when individuals are distressed and to provide appropriate support. That may not be possible using online training and the divides between those who do and do not have such access are becoming more obvious. As usual, I am very proud of our staff at the CRRMH and RAMHP who have responded to yet another adversity in a timely and appropriate manner with the development and sharing of information and resources and the provision of extra support tailored to our rural and remote communities. Their dedication to their work while trying to adapt themselves to the “new normal” of self-isolation, social distancing, caring for older relatives, home-schooling their children, and working from home is admirable. After 20 years of operation, we are aware of the need to listen carefully to our rural constituency and to ensure that we offer best practice and rigorously evaluated support. We expect that adverse events will continue and that rural residents will need support if they are to thrive in the face of multiple environmental, social and economic adversities. Please contact the Centre on 02 6363 8444 or at [email protected] if you are aware of additional ways in which we can help in what are very difficult times. Prof. David Perkins 4 | Centre for Rural & Remote Mental Health Quarterly Report: January – March 2020 Snapshot of the Quarter Research John Hoskin Library Connections Communications Online Connections Professor David New Coping with the COVID-19 mental 4 new publications 111 requests Perkins presented at Impact of Drought health support this quarter supplied the NSW Liberal and Decision webpage created to Party Drought Making fact sheets distribute credible Summit produced information about the pandemic Partnerships Partnerships RAMHP Staff News 1, 374 people linked to Dr Kris Gottschall care Project Officer for appointed project lead 115 training courses Training Rachel for Everymind’s rural and delivered to 4, 429 Murray and RAMHP remote Ahead For participants Coordinator Andrew Business project 234 community events Daley welcomed to attended the team 5 | Centre for Rural & Remote Mental Health Quarterly Report: January – March 2020 Research Compiled by Research Assistant Lucy McEvoy 4 new publications this quarter Developing a mobile data collection tool to Epistemic justice and the struggle for critical PhD researcher Emma Austin’s paper manage a dispersed mental health suicide literacy, authored by Dr Scott The concerns about climate change workforce, led by RAMHP Evaluation Fitzpatrick was published in Social among rural residents in Australia was Manager Sarah Maddox was published in Epistemology in February. A blog on suicide published in the Journal of Rural Studies Rural and Remote Health in February. The in February. literacy was also authored for use on our paper evaluated the data collection app website and social media channels. created for RAMHP Coordinators’ use. For more detailed information please see Appendices 1-5 6 | Centre for Rural & Remote Mental Health Quarterly Report: January – March 2020 John Hoskin Library Compiled by Centre Librarian Paul Stanfield Library Updates Note: Figures are for January & February only, due to staff leave taken in March. Library Total Activity • Short ready reference inquiries proved to be lower for this quarter – down from 192 to 110. Reference inquires were mainly from student visitors of the WNSW LHD. Consumer visits have Short reference 110 greatly reduced due to changes introduced in January. Interlibrary loan 15 requests – • Interlibrary loan requests- GRATIS reduced from 48 to 15. GRATIS • Requests supplied from the CRRMH library were down from 146 to 111 for this period. 103 Interlibrary loan 7 requests were supplied to Western LHD staff. requests - UON Interlibrary loans 3 • Loans were down from 48 to 18. See table for other library activity this quarter. incomplete Requests 111 supplied from Connections with UON CRRMH library • CRRMH Librarian Paul Stanfield continues to work on a research impact analysis in consultation Requests 11 with UON Senior Research Librarian Debbie Booth. supplied external to CRRMH library Loans 18 7 | Centre for Rural & Remote Mental Health Quarterly Report: January – March 2020 Connections Compiled by Senior Development Officer Vanessa Delaney • The CRRMH strives to keep politicians informed of the mental health issues facing our rural and remote communities so that policy can be better informed. On 13 March the CRRMH was visited by the NSW Shadow Minister for Mental Health Tara Moriarty MLC. Minister Moriarty was very interested to learn more about the work we are doing in rural and remote NSW. On 14 March CRRMH Director David Perkins attended the NSW Liberal Party Drought Summit in Sydney, which was organised by the NSW Parliamentary Friends of Mental Health, chaired by Scott Farlow MLC. David spoke about how we need to keep rural adversity and the perspective of rural and regional communities on the radar when adverse situations such as drought and bushfires no longer get media (L-R) Vanessa Delaney, Tara Moriarty MLC, attention. Claire Gander, Rosie Dunnett, Professor David Perkins • Following on from the Orange Declaration, Professor David Perkins continues on the development of an international declaration in conjunction with the International Initiative in Mental Health Leadership (IIMHL). A rural mental health collaborative and iCircle has been created by IIMHL, which David is a member. Associate Professor Nellie Oelke who was a visiting scholar at the CRRMH in 2019 wrote a letter to the editor on the relevance of the Orange Declaration for Canada. • During this quarter, the CRRMH provided feedback on the federal Department of Health’s Rural Allied Health