A lack of mental health services could be part of what causes a higher burden of drug and alcohol use in rural and regional areas, a northern Victorian doctor has said.
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People in regional and remote areas are more likely to drink risky quantities of alcohol than those in major cities, a report from the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare found.
As remoteness increases, so does the burden of drug and alcohol use, according to the report.
President of Rural Doctors Association of Victoria Megan Belot said drug and alcohol use often masks mental health problems
She said a lack of mental health services to regional and rural areas could be part of the issue with drug and risky alcohol use.
"Part of the issue part of these people are turning to self-medicating through drug and alcohol is mental health problems," Dr Belot said.
Dr Belot has also seen the profile of drug-use change in her time working in regional Victoria.
Ice-use has become much more prominent, whereas when she began alcohol was more of an issue.
As the on-call anesthetist in Echuca Dr Belot is often called to sedate patients when needed in emergency.
It got to the point where she was seeing an ice-affected person nearly every shift in emergency.
"I've definitely noticed a change. When I first started in Echuca it was more alcohol based admissions to emergency. But over the past few years, ice is more the issue now," Dr Belot said.
"To be honest, it's really quite scary. The drug ice, it's in its own league really. It's so different from the other drugs we've had to deal with over the past few decades."
Dr Belot said the proposed rural generalist scheme - which would equip rural doctors with additional specialisation in certain areas, such as mental health - could help provide mental health services to rural and regional areas.
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