New high-tech drought specialist psychologist to reject the 'medical model'

Drought psychologist Julian Rote is based in Armidale but covers the entire region, using technology like Zoom and Skype to overcome the tyranny of distance.

The senior clinical psychologist is the first specialist mental health professional for the agriculture sector in the local area.

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But he won't be working within what he calls "the medical model".

Mr Rote said many farmers with genuine mental health issues often actually consider mental health treatments an additional burden on top of concrete problems like drought and bushfire.

One patient was so scared of being "diagnosed" he avoided help, the 14-year veteran said.

"The thing that made him feel better is that he was scared that if he accessed the service, whether it was me or someone else, that he was going to be told he had a mental issue.

"He was so relieved to be able to work through the issues and not be told not only do you have all those [financial] problems, you have a mental health issue on top of that."

Mr Rote said he intended to follow a different approach.

"First thing is I'm going to try to create a space for communication where we can, as openly as possible, discuss the whole situation and whole the context of the situation," he said.

"Without necessarily it being an assessment process to figure out what your diagnosis will be."

Health districts like Hunter New England Health have funded several specialist agriculture positions, he said.

Steve Dalton, a Narrabri broadacre cropping broker, said the service had already helped him.

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