Location – where have we met? Aimed for regional locations yet readily accessible for participants. The first conference was in Canberra. The second in Sydney, one in Hobart and now three in Adelaide. Two have been exclusively online and the other seven have been in regional locations, yet readily accessible from anywhere in Australia.
Observation – who comes along and participates? Practitioners, peer workers, people with lived experience, carers, those involved in developing and delivering policy, and academics.
Vocation – what is our emphasis? Practical ways in which culturally appropriate policy can be implemented to those in rural and remote settings. Focus on mental health service and delivery amongst children, young people and adults.
A developing theme for several years has been digital service delivery into remote Australia. This has included phone, teleconference and digital services on a range of platforms. Emphasis has been to enable viable and timely access for consumers when face-to-face encounters are implausible.
Meaningful Aboriginal engagement is vital and requires continual education for a predominantly non-Aboriginal workforce.
Multi-cultural awareness is an increasing area of practice. As the population in rural communities becomes increasingly diverse, so the workforce needs to continually adapt to change.
Bespoke delivery: there is the similarity of remoteness amongst communities in rural Australia. Yet, each community has a unique local flavour.
Disasters, crises and trauma are constants. They might be one-off events in any specific community but they occur on a regular basis. Practitioners need to develop a consistent, pro-active and meaningful response to the management of disasters and ongoing trauma.
Rural and remote mental health is resilient and ahead of the game. This was shown during the COVID-19 response of 2020. We can continue to be pro-active as we meet the needs of mental health in rural Australia.