Australian & New Zealand Mental Health Association Rural Mental Health Conference 2024

A practical, cross-sector forum focused on improving mental health and wellbeing in rural and remote communities. Sessions translate evidence and lived experience into services that work—covering prevention, early intervention, crisis response, and sustainable models of care.
What You Will Learn

How to design and deliver place-based, culturally safe mental health programs

Early identification, brief interventions, and referral pathways suited to rural contexts

Workforce strategies: recruitment, retention, supervision, and wellbeing of staff and volunteers

Using telehealth, digital tools, and outreach to bridge distance and access barriers

Partnerships with primary care, schools, First Nations organisations, agriculture and industry

Funding, commissioning, and evaluation approaches that demonstrate impact

Event Details

Format: Keynotes, case studies, concurrent sessions, workshops, and panels

Structure: Prevention & promotion → Early intervention → Community treatment & crisis → Recovery & lived experience → Systems & policy

Takeaways: Toolkits, templates, and checklists you can deploy immediately

Who Should AttendClinicians, peer workers, service leaders, primary care teams, school counsellors and educators, First Nations health organisations, NGOs, government and commissioning bodies, researchers, local government, and community advocates.
Why Attend

Turn policy into practical, context-fit solutions for rural settings

Learn from programs that have scaled—what worked, what didn’t, and why

Build partnerships that improve access, safety, and continuity of care

 
+ Topics:
*Note: these are continuous video recordings during the conference, they include individual lectures mentioned in the Detail section below

First Nations and Indigenous Mental Health Resilience and Equity
Improving Mental Health Support in Rural and Geographically Dispersed Areas
Promoting Inclusion and Mental Well-being in Rural Communities
Integrating Early Distress Interventions into Rural Suicide Prevention Strategies
Telehealth Solutions and Challenges in Rural Mental Health
Empowering Community Voices: Centring Lived Experience in Mental Health Service Provision
Workforce Development in Rural Mental Health
Resource Allocation for Rural Mental Health Programs
Environment Sustainability and Mental Health
Enhancing Mental Health through Nature-Based Therapies and Alternative Programs in Rural Communities