THE prevalence of youth suicide in our communities has been the focus of many Australian health organisations over recent years.
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Unfortunately, a specific focus on same-sex attracted young people in rural areas and the significantly increased suicide rates of this population is often lacking.
To address this – for the first time in Australia - students of the University of Melbourne’s Rural Health Club (Outlook) and Queer Health Club (MDQueer) have started to run joint events which highlight the high rates of self-harm in gay and lesbian young people in regional, rural and remote areas.
The statistics around suicide are alarming.
Young men in regional areas are twice as likely to try to take their own life than men in the city.
Young men in towns of less than 4000 people are up to 12 times more likely to attempt suicide than their city counterparts.
The statistics surrounding young gay men are terrifying, with young same-sex attracted men up to six times more likely to attempt suicide than the general population.
Some studies have even reported that up to 42 per cent of young gay men in Australia have tried to take their own life at least once.
Combining these shocking numbers it’s easy to imagine that young, gay, rural men must be at a unique risk for self-harm.
The first student-level rural queer health event was organised by myself and fellow medical student/queer health advocate Asiel Adan-Sanchez.
Asiel is heavily involved in gay and lesbian health advocacy as an executive member of the UniMelb Queer Health Club and a Queer Health Officer for the Australian Medical Student’s Association.
Asiel, myself and our teams were able to pool our resources and invite two very enlightening presenters to the University of Melbourne.
Our speakers discussed how we as future health professionals can better support the mental health of same-sex attracted young people in rural areas.
Our first speaker for this inaugural event was Doctor Vincent Cornelisse - a GP with a plethora of knowledge about gay and lesbian healthcare in rural communities having worked in remote communities across the country.
He has first-hand experience of what it's like to be out and proud as a gay doctor in country Australia and shared his experiences in a documentary The Doctors Wife.
Our second speaker was Daniel Witthaus, founder and CEO of the National Institute for Challenging Homophobia Education.
In 2010, Daniel embarked on a 38-week journey across rural and remote Australia with his message against homophobia.
His book Beyond Priscilla documents the experiences of LGBT Australians living in regional, rural and remote communities that he met along the way.
The event was highly successful, with many medical students (our future doctors) commenting that they felt much more able to support young gay patients, and requesting further events that cover this very important topic.
While this has only been the start of our mission at the University of Melbourne to improve the mental health of same-sex attracted young people living in regional, rural and remote areas, it has been one big step in a very important direction.