THE Muswellbrook Rotary Club recently hosted a mental health panel with three of the town's most respected doctors along with Doing It For Our Farmers pop-up pantry's Justine Cooper - and their outlook was dire.
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Hunter Medical Practice's Noman Jawaad, Ahmed Jalal and Joe Paul made some truly damning statements throughout the three-hour presentation.
Perhaps the most notable of which was the assertion they are now seeing more people come in with stress and mental health issues, than they are with sore throats or the flu.
They made it clear that there was only one way to describe the current situation - a wellbeing emergency.
Dr Paul, who is relatively new to the region, said he was incredibly surprised to see the amount people struggling with anxiety and self-harm tendencies.
A number of issues were highlighted as being potential factors, with shift work and the drought being among the most focused on topics.
Ms Cooper, who has seen first-hand what kind of emotional impact the drought can have on people, revealed things are worse now than they were 18 months ago.
"Their [farmers'] mental health is deteriorating, their outlook on life is deteriorating," she said.
She added men often have to battle against their own pride before reaching out for help, recalling times where she has seen people sit in their car outside the pop-up pantry for over 15 minutes before gaining the confidence to walk into the store.
Opinions were put forward as to how mental health issues could be addressed, with free or heavily government subsidised psychologists being the most spoken about option.
This was brought up because the current cost of that kind of help is unsustainable for those living in isolated communities, due to the fact it is often only available in larger cities and more than $100 per session.
There are also several obstacles getting in the way of real help being delivered, as discussed by Dr Jawaad.
"The community is very enthusiastic and energetic and have time and effort, but we expect that the effort should come from the hierarchy to help this problem," he said.
"Because of drought, because of the farms, because of the rurality, because of the distance and access... we want this problem to be solved at a higher government level."
He also explained that the government did not class Muswellbrook as an area of need - and was not in the DPA (Distribution Priority Area).
This creates severe barriers for health professionals in the region, with the practice principal admitting that if he finds GPs (general practitioners) or people to help with mental wellbeing that are willing to work in the area, he is often unable to hire them anyway.
There are a variety of ways in which the speakers said the community could get involved to help.
Dr Jawaad said writing to Upper Hunter MP Michael Johnsen to request help and drive change was an option, as well as writing to Rotary for them to accumulate enough "voices" to make a substantial case to the government.
On a more personal level, Dr Paul said it's always worth asking people who may be under stress if they're feeling okay; declaring the next hand you extend may be the most important hand you ever extend.
While Dr Jalal simply urged people not to lose faith in the medical system, even though it can be dysfunctional and difficult at times, stating that is when hope often fades out significantly.
