Mental Health Proposal for Remote Community in Northern Queensland

MENTAL HEALTH PROPOSAL 1
MENTAL HEALTH PROPOSAL REGARDING REMOTE COMMUNITY IN
NORTHERN QUEENSLAND
Name:
Institutional affiliation:

MENTAL HEALTH PROPOSAL 2
PURPOSE
This proposal elaborates mental health improvement efforts in Northern
Queensland amongst the rural community in Mt Isa. According to the World Health
Organization (2014) mental health is defined as wholesome ability of an individual to
deal with stressful events positively in addition to the absence of mental illness. There are
various challenges that the people living in rural and remote areas of Northern
Queensland face that have contributed to poor mental health. This paper explains in to
detail such challenges, provides strategies to improve mental health and how to measure
the expected outcomes.
This paper also diverges to explain there are various people living in Mt Isa both
indigenous and non-indigenous. Indigenous such as Aboriginal and Torres Strait require a
different approach compared to the indigenous people. The proposal aims to seek how the
mental health of the people living in Mt Isa has been affected by various conditions and
how it can be improved. This is as a result of research studies that have shown that
mental health of those living in remote and rural areas is compromised due to
psychological distress.
BACKGROUND
According to Schirmer, Yabsley, Mylek & Peel (2016) people living in rural and remote
areas have a poor mental health compared to their counterparts in urban areas. This is due to poor
access to health services, drug abuse and poor socioeconomic conditions. The people living in

MENTAL HEALTH PROPOSAL 3
Mt Isa mainly rely on agriculture and livestock as their livelihood. Drought severely affects their
livelihood contributing to poor mental health (Edwards, Gray & Hunter ,2015).
Declined mental health has been indicated by a sudden increase in suicide rates. Rural
and remote areas in Northern area accounted for 5.6% of total suicide rates in Queensland (Potts,
Kõlves, O’Gorman & De Leo, 2016). Suicide is a strong indicator that depression amongst other
mental illnesses are highly prevalent among the people living in Mt Isa.There is need to improve
access to mental health services to the people while at the same time ensuring cultural safe
environment for the indigenous people.
Substance abuse particularly cannabis is common in the rural and remote areas of
Northern Queensland. Cannabis sativa has been associated with anxiety, depression, psychosis
and schizophrenia. It also worsens suicidal ideations. This contributes to poor mental health in
combination with other factors. Graham & Clough (2018) states that about 73% of the cannabis
sativa users are dependent and heavy users. This exacerbates mental health illnesses and
particularly the Aboriginal and Torres Island people who are vulnerable due to racial
discrimination. The government needs to regulate cannabis availability while working with the
healthcare workers to provide rehabilitation services.
According to the Australian Institute of Health and welfare (2014) people living in
remote areas are likely to engage in alcohol consumption twice compared to their counterparts in
urban areas. Although stringent rules to curb alcohol consumption have been enforced it is still
being consumed in very high amounts. Indigenous community such as Aboriginal and Torres
Strait have been reported to have a higher likelihood of harm by alcohol compared to other non-
indigenous communities (Clough et al. 2016). Alcohol has been attributed to increase depression