CENTRE FOR RURAL & REMOTE MENTAL HEALTH Quarterly Report October – December 2018 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 crrmh@new castle.edu.au 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: October – December 2018 Contents Report Page Director’s Report 4 Snapshot of the Quarter 5 Research 6 John Hoskin Library 7 Connections 8 Communications 10 Online Connections 13 Partnerships 15 Good SPACE 18 Rural Adversity Mental Health Program (RAMHP) 20 Staff News 22 Appendix 23 3 | Centre for Rural & Remote Mental Health Quarterly Report: October – December 2018 Director’s Report Centre Director Professor David Perkins Suicide is a rare event with devastating consequences. It may or may not follow a mental illness or a history of self-harm or suicidal ideation. It hurts families, workplaces, schools and communities, and approaches to its prevention are many and varied. We know about risk factors such as hopelessness, isolation and feelings that "I would not be missed; no one would care or they would be better off without me"'. At the CRRMH we are working to prevent suicide in a number of ways. As an academic, Dr Scott Fitzpatrick is doing basic research using the Coroner’s database examining deaths by suicide in rural communities and looking for factors which are associated with sui cide and might be addressed in trying to prevent suicide. Our Good SPACE program provides training for individuals so that they can identify someone who is not travelling well and draw alongside them to encourage them to seek appropriate help. It addresses to natural fears that “I will only make things worse” which is not the case. Sometimes people come to our courses and need help themselves and our staff are able to link them to services and provide support. We work with colleagues to ensure that rural health professionals have the skills and confidence to work with people who are suicidal which is far more common than most people realise. Through our We-Yarn program, we work with Aboriginal organisations to build trust. This may be followed by a workshop for staff or Aboriginal community members. The process of building trust takes time and is not assisted by short-term contracts in the funding system. This point was emphasised by the Senate Inquiry in Access to and Quality of Rural Mental Health Services which reported in December 2018. In the health system, Primary Health Networks (PHNs) are responsible for leading regional planning to promote mental health and prevent rural suicide. We are currently working with two regions to help the PHNs and associated services in this task. At the community level, we have been working with rural communities which have experienced deaths by suicide and are determined to work together to prevent suicide and promote wellbeing. Supported by the NSW State Mental Health Commission, we are implementing a model of Community Wellbeing Collaboratives which is based on the best available research. This model is based on community convers ations about the local risks and challenges and supports local collaboration to promote wellbeing. This is not about solutions imposed from outside but rather about local coordinated initiatives to create mentally healthy communities. In April we will meet with these communities to share our learnings and to learn from those who are working in innovative way s, crossing traditional organisational and professional boundaries to overcome the circumstances in rural Australia that can lead some to consider ending their lives. Our approach to suicide prevention is described in the position paper which can be found on our website under Reports and Publications. Thanks for your interest in and support of the Centre for Rural and Remote Mental Health. Prof David Perkins, Director 4 | Centre for Rural & Remote Mental Health Quarterly Report: October – December 2018 Snapshot of the Quarter Research John Hoskin Library Connections Communications Online Connections Professor David Week-long IFIC 340 library visitors th Perkins hosted a The 7 edition of the Research participant Australia 517 journal articles workshop at the Glove Box Guide to advertisements accelerated supplied Australian Rural & Mental Health reached an audience learning program 186 inter-library loans Remote Mental launched on 4 of 20,364 people on hosted at CRRMH provided Health Symposium October Facebook Partnerships Good SPACE RAMHP Staff News Workplace ASIST training held in 724 people linked to Congratulations to Support Skills Tenterfield received care Rosie Dunnett who training pilot positive and 1,927 people trained has been announced with Rabobank encouraging feedback 117 community as the new CRRMH Australia from participants events attended Executive Officer commenced 5 | Centre for Rural & Remote Mental Health Quarterly Report: October – December 2018 Research Compiled by Research Assistant Lucy McEvoy $39,494 in new funding 1 report and 2 papers published 3 conference presentations IFIC Australia hosted a week-long The Virtual Dementia Friendly Rural The Rural Mental Health Research Accelerated Learning Program at Communities (Verily Connect) project was Network met in Orange in October to the Centre from 29 October unitl 2 officially launched on 18 October to coincide discuss reinvigorating rural and regional November attended by 20 delegates. with National Carers’ Week. Implementation of mental health services and maximising On 9 November IFIC Australia hosted VERILY has begun in Victor Harbor, Koo Wee their collective impact. their second workshop for the year at Rup and Molong. NSW Parliament House. For more detailed information please see Appendices 1-5 6 | Centre for Rural & Remote Mental Health Quarterly Report: October – December 2018 Library Total John Hoskin Library Activity Compiled by Centre Librarian Paul Stanfield Visitors 340 Articles supplied 517 The period between October-December 2018 proved to be a quieter period than July-September, also affected Photocopying/ 547 printing by the early closure for the Christmas break in December. Inter-library 186 • Visitor numbers were stable for CRRMH, but down for Western LHD from 117 to 73. loans/ gratis • Patient numbers doubled in this period from 131 to 255, however, student numbers were low in this period. Short reference 370 • Article requests were halved for CRRMH from 229 to 108 and down from 459 to 335 for Western LHD staff. Long reference: 44 However, November proved to be a busy month. literature searches • Inter-library loans were slightly increased overall from 147 to 186. Information skills 8 training Library Collections Committee Meeting: On 29 November the Committee discussed promoting the library to Other training 103 students completing placements at the hospital and new resource suggestions, which have been requested for (catalogue the library. searching/ library orientation Area Librarians Meeting: On 12 December area health librarians met at Dubbo Base Hospital. Areas of interest included CIAP training and workshops, and the placement of links to library forms on the new health Loans 81 intranet homepage. All new publications Daily News Alerts and Journal Table of Contents: Daily News Alerts remains a popular feature of library including journal articles services at John Hoskin Library. This has recently been upgraded as of June 2018 to make it more appealing to and conference papers subscribers. It is available for subscription through the CRRMH and the RAMHP websites. There is also a available as of December regular journal Table of Contents sent out to Western NSWLHD and CRRMH staff. have been updated on the Endnote file. Library Promotion: There was a number of library promotion measures during this period. The library was promoted through a book display for Mental Health Month in October. A display of new library additions was created and promoted via email to regular user groups on 30 October. Library services continue to be promoted through emails with details of information skills training which is available for individuals or groups. 7 | Centre for Rural & Remote Mental Health Quarterly Report: October – December 2018 Connections Compiled by Senior Development Officer Vanessa Delaney Australian Rural & Remote Mental Health Symposium CRRMH Director Prof David Perkins presented our rural suicide prevention framework at the Australian Rural & Remote Mental Health Symposium in Hobart on 16 October. The workshop titled ‘Rural Suicide Needs Attention’ focused on