LOGIC December 2018 Vol 17 No 4 | Page 8

RURAL MUSTER #8 Kate Stark – Nurse Practitioner As this goes to print, I am pleased to report that lambing and tailing / docking is over for another year and we are looking toward Summer. There is no doubt that sunshine makes us want to get out and about and be more active which in turn is good for our mental health. As we know, being rural can be isolating and again we are rounding off another year where suicide has featured strongly as an area where health care is low on resource but high in need. We all have mental health and preservation is essential to quality of life as well as longevity. Unfortunately, isolation from rurality and stress related to reduced access to health care from living a distance from available care is highlighted in recent statistics which reveal there has been a rise in suicide amongst farmers in 2018. On a positive note, we are now aware that this is a problem December 2018 L.O.G.I.C and it is reassuring to hear of rural businesses including mental health support and suicide prevention programmes in their strategic plans for health and safety going forward aiming for mental WEALTH, not just health. We have come a long way – it wasn’t long ago that depression wasn’t talked about as openly as it is today and suicide was something that wasn’t brought up in conversation. Creating awareness helps us create a plan to identify those at risk in rural populations and hopefully reduce suicide rates amongst rural people and enable those who live in isolation to access care more easily and in doing so live a longer happier life. Technology will have a part to play in this but we must still place value on the power of face to face encounters and human touch. Rural Nurses New Zealand has had a busy few months and currently has a number of projects in progress including, but not limited to the following: • A letter was sent in early October to NCNZ seeking a review of questions asked in the APC to gain robust rural nursing workforce data. We are currently awaiting a response from the NCNZ CEO. • Work continues to develop a website link from the RGPN website specifically for rural nurses. This has steady momentum and we hope to see this go live in the next months. • Mobile Health & RNNZ webinar series continue with the 4 th webinar being held on October 30 th . This was entitled “Recognising Suicidal 7