15 November 2018: Two faculties from the University of Canberra are joining hands to provide ground-breaking support for drought-affected rural communities, with a caravan of researchers leaving for the pilot Creative Arts and Rural Health Initiative (CARHI) in Condobolin on Saturday, 17 November.
Faculty of Arts & Design (FAD), and Faculty of Health staff and students will be travelling to the rural NSW town in the University’s Mobile Health Hub. The big white-and-blue mobile clinic will serve as a nerve centre for many of the week-long program activities, which will run from 19 to 23 November.
“When it comes to drought relief, many people have jumped onboard to provide food etc. These are great efforts, but I think we need to look at what’s going on in the mental health space as well,” said project manager Ian Drayton, Strategic Projects & Business Development Manager at FAD.
Dr Dean Buckmaster, Senior Lecturer in Psychology at the Faculty of Health, couldn’t agree more with the need for emphasis on the psychological impact of the drought on rural communities.
“According to 2016 statistics from the Centre for Rural and Remote Mental Health, suicide rates outside Australia’s greater capital cities are 50 per cent higher, accounting for 42 per cent of suicide deaths nationally,” he said.
“The bottom line is that for many rural families, there will be no harvest because of the drought, and therefore little to no income. This then ripples outwards, to affect the whole community.”
Funded by the National Farmers’ Federation (NFF), the program has at its heart a series of creative arts workshops.
These will be informed by the ARRTS creative arts recovery program that the University has been running for Department of Defence veterans suffering from trauma and Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder.
“It’s going to be a very exciting, dynamic project with creative writing and visual arts workshops,” said Dr Jordan Williams, Associate Professor of Arts and Communication at FAD, who is heading the CARHI arts team.
To build on community engagement, the project will see a mix of pre-planned and responsive workshops, both indoors and outdoors.
“It will be like creative bungee-jumping for us as facilitators!” said Dr Williams.
The project team will also include researcher Paul Collis, a Barkindji man, who will be conducting writing workshops for teenagers, and well-known art therapist Bridie Macgillicuddy.
While the creative workshops run, Dr Buckmaster and other clinical psychologists from the Faculty of Health will also be providing free mental health services to the community, and conducting a needs analysis across Condobolin to help plan long-term mental health support programs for the community.
“We are so pleased that the 2019 Drought Relief Appeal was able to fund the mobilisation of the Mobile Health Hub to drought affected areas of NSW,” said NFF President Fiona Simson. “I urge farmers and their families to pop in and visit the Hub when it sets up in Condobolin.”
Ian Drayton, Dean Buckmaster and Jordan Williams are available for interview.
WHAT: Media opportunity with the Creative Arts and Rural Health team
WHEN: Friday 16 November 2018, 11am
WHERE: Mobile Health Hub (outside Building 10), University of Canberra (campus map)
Contact the University of Canberra media team:
Suzanne Lazaroo
0409 140 415
Suzanne.Lazaroo@canberra.edu.au
Tara Corcoran
0418 806 293
Tara.Corcoran@canberra.edu.au