Capacity building of rural and remote communities to manage their mental health.

The main aim of this project is to assess the capacity of drought-affected rural communities to manage their mental health more effectively through a mental health education program.

The specific objectives of the project are to:

• gauge the extent and nature of mental health issues in drought affected rural and remote communities,
• identify the appropriate and effective means of capacity building in these communities to deal with mental health issues, and
• scope an action research based program to develop the capacity of rural and remote communities to deal with mental health issues associated with drought, climate variability and climate change.
  

Project Team:  Dr Delwar Hossain (CI), Professor Don Gorman, Mr Rod Saal and representatives from the Queensland Murray Darling Committee, RHealth and Toowoomba Centacare.

Funding:   Australian Government - Rural Industries Development Corporation.