Director of the Orange research centre Dr David Perkins, who on Friday spoke at the Inquiry into Health Outcomes and Access to Health and Hospital Services in Rural, Regional and Remote NSW, confirmed the doors will close on December 17.

The research and services conducted from the CRRMH have been split between two Wollongong companies, Grand Pacific Health, which will take on the role of the Rural Adversity Mental Health Program, and the Peregrine Centre.

As a result of the closure, Dr Perkins said 20 jobs would be lost while the CRRMH's library containing 20 years of research, was being dismantled.

Dr Perkins said his centre had been providing a state, national and international understanding of rural and remote mental health issues since it opened in 2016.

"I think that's important because if you don't understand the issue you can't address it," he said.

"I think secondly it will be very difficult for the group taking on the Rural Adversity Program, to actually pick it up. I think there will potentially be a hiatus in that whole system. We developed it and I think it has been managed very well.

"I think the other issue is it remains to be seen whether people working from Wollongong actually understand the rural issues and are able to respond in appropriate ways."

Former Labor senator and Bathurst resident Sue West served on the centre's community advisory committee and said she struggled to understand why its funding was not renewed.

"Research into mental health, there's not a great deal that goes on, certainly not specifically for rural areas," Ms West said. "[The CRRMH] ran a number of programs over the years that really helped... and doing research that backs up [mental health] care," she said.

Ms West said considering recent drought, bushfires, mice plague, COVID-19 and now flooding, the timing was poor.

"I just find it a very sad time and I'm not sure I can understand the rationale for funding not being continued," she said.

The CRRMH was originally opened in Orange in 2016 as a research extension of the Newcastle University with the contract running until 2020. It was given a six month and then three month extension taking it through September, 2020.

"In June they suddenly had a tendering process for less money and for a different sort of service and they awarded that tender to two groups in Wolllongong," Dr Perkins said.

Dr Perkins explained the centre has developed a number of programs in its 20 years, including the Rural Adversity Mental Health Program.

"We've done research on suicide, particularly rural suicide where the rates are 50 per cent higher than they are in the cities and sometimes higher," Dr Perkins said.

"And we've also done work on recovery, recovery after suicide clusters, recovery after fire, flood, drought, all those sorts of things.

"Where you don't have the big populations you have to provide services differently," he said explaining that in the metropolitan areas, services are based "in the same corridor".

"What happens out here, is a lot of our services are visiting services, a lot of our services are not easy to navigate."

He agreed moving the services to Wollongong appeared to be moving them further away from the people who benefitted from them.

"Exactly. And that was the comment that [Labor senator] Walt Secord made [on Friday]. Why of all times would you do this now?" he said.

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