Rural Kids, Same Crises, Less Support

Suicidal ideation, self-harm, and behavioural disturbance are common across Australia — but access to mental health care isn’t.

Paediatric mental health presentations. Are you seeing more of them? What kind of presentations? And what options do you have to manage and support those children and families? Would it be different if you were in the big smoke?

RRECN member Dr Tahnee Dunlop was an author and site lead for a PREDICT study asking those questions. This retrospective cohort study, recently published in the BMJ Emergency Medicine Journal, provides valuable insight into the specifics of paediatric (aged 0-17 years) mental health presentations at 23 Australian EDs (18 metropolitan, 5 rural/regional).  Each site randomly selected up to 100 presentations, and reviewed demographic and clinical characteristics

Mean age was 14.4 years, 59.4% were female. Frequent presentation reasons included suicidal ideation (38.2%), self-harm (29.9%) and behavioural disturbance (13.7%). The demographic profile between rural/regional and metropolitan EDs were similar. However, treatment during hospital visits and pathways to care following presentations differed. Rural and regional Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services require sufficient funding to ensure they are equipped to manage the specific needs of rural/regional children and adolescents, in the absence of nearby inpatient units or alternative referral options.

Find more detail in the open access paper, link below.

Newberry-Dupe J, John-White MR, Babl FE, Borland ML, Bourke EM, Brownlea S, Buntine, P, Charters B, Coleman, M, Dunlop, T. Gaitsgory, O, George, S, Kochar, A, Melvin G, Tham, D, Tonge, B, Tran, V, Craig, S, Borschmann, R. Profile of paediatric mental health presentations to Australian emergency departments in 2018. Emerg Med J. 2025.