Mental Health Commission reveals results of Regional Wellbeing Survey for 2021 to 2022

Last Friday, the NSW Mental Health Commission released the results of their latest Regional Wellbeing Survey which revealed challenges ranging from natural disasters to social issues are having a greater impact on rural and regional communities than in metropolitan areas.

"On top of the impact of repeated natural disasters and COVID-19 lockdowns, more people in the regions see alcohol and drug misuse, lack of job opportunities, and community mobility as big problems than those living in urban areas of NSW," said NSW Mental Health Commissioner Ms Catherine Lourey.

The Regional Wellbeing Survey was conducted by the NSW Mental Health Commission in partnership with the University of Canberra from August 2021 to March 2022, with over 2,900 NSW residents participating.

In the Western NSW Primary Health Network area, over 60 per cent of respondents said drug abuse was an issue in their community - this is higher than anywhere else in the state. In Sydney, just 17.4 percent agreed it was an issue, 24.4 percent agreed in the Hunter and 24.9 percent agreed on the state's north coast.

Drug abuse wasn't the only wellbeing challenge Western NSW led the pack on, according to the survey.

Fifty-nine per cent of western NSW respondents thought alcohol abuse was a problem in their community, 51.1 per cent agreed crime was an issue and 43.1 said they thought domestic violence was an issue.

Unsurprisingly - western NSW also had the highest percentage of residents who reported their wellbeing was impacted by the long term impacts of drought.

23.4 percent of western NSW residents said drought had caused significant ongoing impacts compared to 17.9 percent on the north coast - the second highest - and 4 percent in south eastern NSW - the lowest.

Access to local amenities and services was another wellbeing challenge for residents in regional and rural areas of the state, the survey reveals.

Around twice as many regional residents than urban residents reported limited access to services including mobile phone reception, reliable internet, public transport, and access to specialist health services.

In western NSW, only 19 per cent of respondents rated the quality of local roads as good - the lowest percentage across NSW.

Other services in the region fared better with more than half of the community rating government services, community events and job availability as "good", more than 60 per cent saying the health of the environment and sense of safety were "good" and almost three quarters responding the community was friendly.

Although the survey identified a number of challenges for the wellbeing of regional NSW residents, Commissioner Lourey said it wasn't all negative.

"Despite this, regional residents are less likely than those living in urban areas to report high levels of psychological distress and more likely to feel they can recover from difficulties and tend to see challenges as learning opportunities," she said.

The data gathered through the survey is currently being analysed by the commission to help government agencies better understand what different regional communities are concerned about.

The full results from the Regional Wellbeing Survey are available on the NSW Mental Health Commission's website.

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