Week 10 H&S

Question 1

Describe how rurality and remoteness can impact the health of rural Australians, particularly in the context of mental health.
Identify key barriers to accessing mental health services in rural and remote areas and describe strategies used to help overcome these barriers.
Outline methods used to measure access to health care (including mental health care) in a rural or remote context.

Question 2

How can rurality impact mental health?

Answer 2

• Increased suicide risk
• Increased risk of risky drinking/illicit drug use
• Decreased access to supports
• Cultural stigma in some small communities

Question 3

What are some barriers that affect people in rural/remote areas from accessing mental health services?

Answer 3

• Increased distance to healthcare facilities
• Decreased access to high tech/highly specialised care
• Financial barriers

Question 4

What are five dimensions of access to care?

Answer 4

• Availability
• Accessibility
• Accommodation (does it accommodate to needs?)
• Affordability
• Acceptability

Question 5

Describe ARIA rural classification

Answer 5

• Measures geographical distance from a place to different kinds of service centres
• Divide each category (A-D) by the national average to give a ratio, with a capped score of 3. Higher = more remote

Question 6

What are the three zones of RRMA rural classification?

Answer 6

• Metropoliation (least rural)
• Rural
• Remote (most rural)

Question 7

Describe ASGS rural classification + what test is it based on? How does it determine most remote areas different to other tests

Answer 7

• Based on ARIA+
• 5 categories of centre; index range from 0-15
• Tighter definition of most remote areas

Question 8

What is the range of MMM scores? What is the model most used for?

Answer 8

• Ranges from MMM1 (major cities) to MMM7 (v remote)
• Used for health system allocation/health programs

Question 9

Which health conditions are in higher prevalence in rural areas than in mtreo?

Answer 9

• Type 2 diabetes (remember terrible food at barossa)
• Suicide/self-inflicted injuries
• COPD more common (?more smoking)
• In very remote kidney failure/CKD more likely

Question 10

Which three causes of death notably increase in incidence in remote areas?

Answer 10

• COPD
• Lung cancer
• Coronary heart disease

Question 11

Why are people worried about climate change in rural + remote communities from a healthcare perspective

Answer 11

• They’re worried it could cause increased natural disasters/increased heatwaves and decreased rain
• If true, could post health/safety rusk, especially heatwaves in elderly, financial pressures to farms, and depression

Question 12

Why do doctors go rural/stay rural/leave rural?

Answer 12

• Go rural: adventure, finances, rural background/spouse
• Stay rural: long-term contract, rural background, ood conditions (holiday, study leave, etc)
• Leave rural: employed elsewhere, poor conditions, on-call requirements, inadequate housing

Question 13

What are some efforts to increase # of rural students (and thus improve rural health)?

Answer 13

• Bonded places (need to go rural)
• Rural medical schools
• Rural university placement requirements for CSP
• Greater financial support for upskilling in ↑ MMM
• Rural generalist stream
• Rural bulk billing incentive
• Indigenous workforce training programs