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Minters, Royal Flying Doctor Service team up for rural mental health
BigLaw firm MinterEllison and the Queensland-based Royal Flying Doctor Service have combined to “shine light on” mental health services and funding across rural Australia.
Jerome Doraisamy
Source: flyingdoctor.org.au
The vast distances patients must travel to access mental health services is only one of the challenges they face, and other barriers include a hesitancy to access help, apprehensions due to stigma and cultural barriers, Minters said in a statement.
“Regardless of where you live, all Australians need appropriate and readily accessible healthcare. Mental health is no different,” said RFDS Queensland head of clinical governance Trent Dean.
“A better understanding of what’s working in rural areas is needed if we are to improve the mental health of those living outside of the city.”
By combining RFDS and MinterEllison skills, we will be changing the way success is measured through qualitative insights, he continued.
“Quantitative findings don’t always tell the whole story, as patients often don’t feel comfortable having formal conversations and talking about their experiences and whether it has been of benefit.”
The insights gained will help provide a case for more long-term funding certainty and help to appropriately resource communities with the help they need, added Minters partner and leader of the firm’s national health industry group, Shane Evans.
“Continuity of funding and consistent patient-focused support is key, and that’s where these insights come in extremely useful, as our qualitative findings will help to understand what good service looks like,” he said.
“What we have found so far is that service providers need to spend a lot of time being present in the community, sometimes visiting every member of that community to establish trust,” Mr Dean noted.
“There is so much work behind the scenes in delivery of mental health services in rural Australia, such as time spent on properties or in informal settings, to build relationships and outcomes that can’t be easily logged or captured in quantitative measures… statistics are important, but they are never going to tell you the full story, or even part of it, as so much of it is hidden and below the surface.”
“Once we understand what is required in terms of mental health resourcing, we will need to be able to develop the frameworks which will make access and participation easy for people in the bush,” added Minters chief experience officer Fiona Glendinning.
“We’ve got a lot to offer in the way of access to experts, and it’s something very special to use our expertise to create better outcomes for regional communities and the RFDS.”
Jerome Doraisamy
Jerome Doraisamy is the editor of Lawyers Weekly and HR Leader. He has worked at Momentum Media as a journalist on Lawyers Weekly since February 2018, and has served as editor since March 2022. In June 2024, he also assumed the editorship of HR Leader. Jerome is also the author of The Wellness Doctrines book series, an admitted solicitor in NSW, and a board director of the Minds Count Foundation.
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