title: Rural men and mental health: their experiences and how they managed.
abstract: There is a growing awareness that a primary source of information about mental health lies with the consumers. This paper reports on a study that interviewed rural men with the aim of exploring their mental health experiences within a rural environment. The results of the interviews are a number of stories of resilience and survival that highlight not only the importance of exploring the individuals' perspective of their issues, but also of acknowledging and drawing on their inner strengths. Rural men face a number of challenges that not only increase the risk of mental illness but also decrease the likelihood of them seeking and/or finding professional support. These men's stories, while different from each other, have a common thread of coping. Despite some support from family and friends, participants also acknowledged that seeking out professional support could have made the recovery phase easier. Mental health nurses need to be aware, not only of the barrier to professional support but also of the significant resilience that individuals have and how it can be used.
authors.affiliation: Department of Nursing, University of Southern Queensland, Toowoomba, Queensland, Australia. don.gorman@usq.edu.au
authors.forename: Don
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Gorman
authors.forename: Elizabeth
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Buikstra
authors.forename: Desley
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Hegney
authors.forename: Susanne
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Pearce
authors.forename: Cath
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Rogers-Clark
authors.forename: Jim
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Weir
authors.forename: Bronwyn
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: McCullagh
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000339:Affect; D001290:Attitude; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D001523:Mental Disorders / Q000453:epidemiology* / Q000523:psychology; D010342:Patient Acceptance of Health Care / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D012424:Rural Population; D013850:Thinking