Farmers’ contact with health care services prior to suicide: evidence for the role of general practitioners as an intervention point
Katerina Kavalidou A , Samara McPhedran A B and Diego De Leo A
+ Author Affiliations
- Author Affiliations
A Australian Institute for Suicide Research and Prevention, National Centre of Excellence in Suicide Prevention, WHO Collaborating Centre for Research and Training in Suicide Prevention, Level 1, Building M24 Psychology, 176 Messines Ridge Road, Mt Gravatt Campus, Griffith University, Qld 4122, Australia.
B Corresponding author. Email: s.mcphedran@griffith.edu.au
Australian Journal of Primary Health 21(1) 102-105 https://doi.org/10.1071/PY13077
Submitted: 2 April 2013 Accepted: 9 July 2013 Published: 5 August 2013
Abstract
Suicide in Australian rural communities has received significant attention from researchers, health practitioners and policymakers. Farmers and agricultural workers have been a focus of particular interest, especially in relation to levels of help seeking for mental health concerns. A less explored area, however, is the level of contact that Australian farming and agriculture workers who die by suicide have had with health providers for physical, rather than mental, health conditions. It is often assumed that farmers and agricultural workers have lower levels of contact with health care services than other rural residents, although this assumption has not been well tested. Using data from the Queensland Suicide Register, this paper describes levels of contact with health care providers in the 3 months before death by suicide among men in farming and agriculture occupations and other occupations in rural Queensland. No significant differences were found in farming and agricultural workers’ levels of contact with a general practitioner when compared with other rural men in Queensland. The current findings lend weight to the view that rural general practitioners represent an important intervention point for farming and agriculture workers at risk of suicide (whether or not those individuals exhibit accompanying psychiatric illness).
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