Share your work at RMHC26

Present at the Rural Mental Health Conference 2026

Use your voice, experience and expertise to contribute to practical solutions for rural mental health.

Presenting at RMHC allows you to:

Share knowledge, research, insights and lived experience
Contribute to conversations shaping rural mental health systems
Inspire peers through practical examples and case studies
Build professional profile, confidence and influence

Presenters are drawn from community, lived experience, practice, policy, research and service delivery.

What we’ll cover at RMHC26

What Works, Where It Matters: Strengthening Integrated Rural Mental Health Systems, Workforce and Communities

With the full program developed following presenter submissions, the conference will be structured around key learning areas shaping the future of rural mental health.

1. From Awareness to Action: Building Rural Mental Health-Capable Communities

Rural communities need more than awareness campaigns — they need shared language, confidence, and practical pathways that support wellbeing before crisis emerges. This stream focuses on place-based prevention and the power of local leadership, highlighting community-led approaches, volunteer and connector models, and the strengths that small towns and remote communities bring to mental health and wellbeing. Sessions explore stigma reduction, family and carer involvement, and community responses to mental ill-health, suicide risk, alcohol and other drug (AOD) harm, and complex needs, while sharing what is already working so effective rural models can be learned from, adapted across communities, and connected into broader regional systems.

2. Work, Study and Economic Participation as Mental Health Recovery

Meaningful work and education are powerful drivers of mental health recovery, especially in regional and rural areas. This stream explores youth and school-to-work transitions, supported employment models, and employer partnerships that promote participation, retention, and wellbeing. Sessions focus on recovery for people experiencing mental ill-health, alcohol and other drug (AOD) challenges, or multiple intersecting barriers — including neurodivergence — and the practical ways vocational pathways can be integrated into care, education, and community support systems.

3. Digital Care That Works in the Real World

This stream explores what effective digital mental health care looks like in rural and regional contexts, drawing on evidence for telehealth, hybrid outreach models, digital peer support, and emerging technologies. Sessions examine quality, safety, equity, and access challenges, including privacy, connectivity, workforce readiness, and the growing role of artificial intelligence in mental health care, suicide prevention, and treatment. The focus is on what works in practice — and how digital approaches can strengthen coordinated, integrated rural systems of care.

4. Suicide Prevention: Safe Language, Lived Experience and Practice

Safe and responsible approaches are essential in suicide prevention, particularly in close-knit rural and regional communities. This stream centres lived experience leadership, safe communication, and practical prevention approaches that support individuals, families, workplaces, and communities. Sessions address postvention, continuity of care after crisis, and the intersections between suicide risk, alcohol and other drug (AOD) use, trauma, and complex psychosocial needs, with a focus on strengthening coordination across services and communities.

5. The Missing Middle: Stepped Care, Navigation and Early Intervention

This stream focuses on people with moderate to severe mental health needs who require more than low-intensity support but do not meet thresholds for tertiary care — a group often described as the “missing middle.” Sessions explore stepped-care pathways, service navigation, and early intervention for people experiencing combined mental health, alcohol and other drug (AOD), trauma, violence, and psychosocial needs. The focus is on peer navigation and continuity of care, with the goal of smoother pathways, earlier support, and a more connected rural system that catches people before they fall.

6. Neurodivergence in Rural Communities: Clients and Workforce

This stream focuses on neurodivergence in rural communities, recognising its intersection with mental health, disability, trauma, and workforce participation. Sessions explore neuroaffirming, strengths-based practice across the lifespan, alongside the experiences of neurodivergent people working in or accessing rural mental health and community services. The focus is on inclusion, accessibility, and reducing mental health risk associated with unmet support needs, fragmented systems, and structural barriers in rural contexts.

7. Women’s Wellbeing in Rural Australia: Mental Health Across the Life Course

Rural women often face layered mental health risks shaped by life stage, caregiving roles, work demands, and limited access to services. During perimenopause and menopause, significant hormonal changes further increase mental health risk and influence both the drivers and treatment needs of depression, anxiety, and related conditions. This stream explores women’s mental health across the life course, including caregiving, workplace wellbeing, screening and referral pathways, and collaborative care within rural service systems, while acknowledging the intersection of mental health, alcohol and other drug (AOD) use, trauma, gendered harm, and social isolation.

8. Climate, Disaster and Recovery: Preparedness, Resilience and the Long Tail

This stream examines mental health and wellbeing across the full disaster life cycle, from mitigation and preparedness through response, recovery, and long-term adaptation in rural and regional communities. Sessions explore how to strengthen protective psychological and practical factors before disasters occur, support individuals and communities during crisis, and foster sustainable recovery that builds future preparedness across communities, services, and regional systems. First Nations–led resilience and recovery models are prioritised, recognising the central role of culture, place, and connection in long-term healing.

9. Workforce Sustainability, Wellbeing and Leadership

A sustainable and integrated rural mental health system depends on a supported, skilled, and empowered workforce, including the peer workforce. This stream addresses burnout prevention, psychosocial risk mitigation, sexual harassment and gendered workplace harm, retention strategies, flexible work models, private practice sustainability, and inclusive leadership. Sessions also build practical skills in advocacy, funding and commissioning literacy, and system navigation, including managing complexity related to comorbidity, alcohol and other drug (AOD) use, and cross-sector care.

What to present

What content works best at RMHC?

The committee welcomes submissions from those ready to share:

Research and data with practical rural application
Place-based or community-led case studies
Innovative service models or pathways
Early intervention, prevention or recovery initiatives
Culturally responsive and First Nations-led approaches
Lived experience-led insights and peer models

Presentation Styles

Click to expand.

Some opportunities include:

Oral Presentation

Take the stage and present to the audience in a 15 or 25 minutes speaking session with 5 minutes for questions.

Workshop

Keep the attention of attendees via engaging, hands-on learning experience in a 90-minute workshop.

Panel Presentation

Panel presentations bring together views from a group of presenters into a discussion of innovative ideas, current topics, and relevant issues. Each panel session will run for 60 minutes and will consist of at least 3 panel members.

Poster Presentation

Visually showcase your research or services via a printed poster, displayed in the conference exhibition area for the duration of the conference. A dedicated 10 minute poster session is included in the conference program.

Important Dates

Presentation applications open	Thursday 26 February 2026
Presentation applications close	Friday 8 May 2026
Notifications to presenters	No Later Than Friday 12 June 2026
Acceptances and registrations due	Monday 15 June 2026
Program launch	Late June
Scholarships close	Monday 21 September 2026
Early bird closes	Monday 21 September 2026
Conference dates	Wednesday 4 Nov - Friday 6 Nov

Present at RMHC26

Apply to Present at RMHC 2026