Positive outcomes from rural mental health training

Benefits are starting to emerge from a University of Southern Queensland (USQ) Centre for Rural and Remote Area Health (CRRAH) project to help farmers with mental illness.

The project, funded through a Foster's Community Grant, involves training farm-advisory workers to assist farming communities with mental health issues.

Project Team Leader and USQ Research Fellow, Dr Delwar Hossain, said a range of factors can trigger mental illness.

'Mental illness may be triggered by social and environmental factors which, in the case of farming communities, may be drought, loss of production, lack of government support, financial pressure, employment, family needs, relationship breakdown, social demand, peer pressure and age,' Dr Hossain said.

Since the first training session in September last year advisory workers have reported positive outcomes.

'Before the advisory workers had done their training we assessed their knowledge about mental health problems, confidence in providing help, ability to recognise symptoms of mental health, ability to help people, belief in the treatment of depression and their attitudes towards mentally ill people.

'After six months we discovered there was an increase in their confidence when providing assistance and a change in their level of knowledge.

'They were more able to recognise symptoms of mental illness, they believed mentally ill people were treatable and had a more positive attitude toward these people.

'They even demonstrated a little bit of personal improvement and saw how they could improve their own lives by taking simple steps.'

Designed to develop skills of farm-advisory workers in helping farmers with mental health issues, the project involved training sessions with farm-advisory workers from across South East Queensland.

'We received nominations from 40 field officers across South East Queensland from the Department of Primary Industries and Fisheries (DPI&F), Department of Natural Resources and Water (DNRW), Queensland Murray Darling Committee (QMDC) and Condamine Alliance (CA).

'We divided the participants into two separate groups; the first spent two days training in September last year and group two were trained in March this year.'

Training sessions included an overview of various mental health problems and the five steps of Mental Health First Aid (MHFA) used to assist someone with a mental health issue.

The steps are:
1. Assess risk of suicide of harm
2. Listen non-judgementally
3. Give reassurance and information
4. Encourage person to get appropriate professional help
5. Encourage self-help strategies

'These steps can also be used to help people who suffer from anxiety disorders, depression, psychosis or substance abuse disorders. They can also help suicidal people and those suffering a panic attack.'

The research team are planning to contact the participants after 12 months again to evaluate the impact of their training.

'If it is successful we will look at sourcing fund for offering the training to all farm advisory workers within the DPI&F, DNRW, QMDC and Condamine Alliance.'

Media Contact: Jane Urquhart USQ Media +61 7 4631 2559