Citation

Fuller JD, Kelly B, Law S, Pollard G, Fragar L. BMC Health Serv. Res. 2009; 9(1): 87.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2009, Holtzbrinck Springer Nature Publishing Group - BMC)

DOI

10.1186/1472-6963-9-87

PMID

19480667

PMCID

PMC2700096

Abstract

BACKGROUND: Farmers represent a subgroup of rural and remote communities at higher risk of suicide attributed to insecure economic futures, self-reliant cultures and poor access to health services. Early intervention models are required that tap into existing networks used by farmers. This study describes service networks in rural shires that relate to the mental health needs of farming families. This serves as a baseline to inform service network improvements. METHODS: A network survey of mental health related links between agricultural support, health and other human services in four drought declared shires in comparable districts in rural New South Wales, Australia. Mental health links covered information exchange, referral recommendations and program development. RESULTS: 87 agencies from 111 (78%) completed a survey. 79% indicated that two thirds of their clients needed assistance for mental health related problems. The highest mean number of interagency links concerned information exchange and the frequency of these links between sectors was monthly to three monthly. The effectiveness of links between the agricultural support and health sector were rated as less effective by the agricultural support sector than by the health sector (p<.05). The most highly linked agencies across all areas of activity were Rural Financial Counsellors, the Department of Primary Industry Drought Support Workers and Community Health Centres. Hence, for a mental health service network targeting farming families these are three key agencies across the spectrum of casework to program development. The limitations of this study in describing service networks relate to the accuracy of network bounding, self-report bias and the unknown impact of missing data from non-participants. CONCLUSIONS: Linking with agricultural agencies is important in order to build effective mental health service pathways to address the needs of farming populations. Work is required to ensure that these agricultural support agencies have operational and effective links to primary mental health care services. Network analysis provides a baseline to inform this work. With interventions to promote network development, such as local mental health training and joint service planning, we would expect to see over time an increase in the mean number of links, the frequency in which these links are used and the rated effectiveness of these links.

Language: en