For the students of the Oodnadatta Aboriginal School, the nearest dedicated youth mental health support service is almost nine hours drive away.
But thanks to the Royal Flying Doctor Service (RFDS), mental health practitioners are making the long journey out to the school much shorter, travelling by light plane.
The program is a recent partnership between the national youth mental health service Headspace and the RFDS and it Is providing opportunities students would otherwise miss out on.
"We don't have a school councillor in a place like this, so without the Headspace program there would be nothing," Oodnadatta Aboriginal School principle Aaron Holder told SBS News.
The program gets mental health professionals into remote outback schools. Source: SBS News
For Headspace Youth Engagement Officer Hannah Whetham, who works with the students teaching group programs such as mindfulness and breathing exercises, as well as providing one-on-one support, working in remote parts of the country is a unique environment.
"The challenges they may face include grief and loss, that can be a big one. Because the communities are so connected and there is that depth and richness. If someone does pass away or move away the whole community feels it and that can be a real issue for young people," she said.
But she said living in remote communities can also be a "protective factor" for Aboriginal youths.
"We know that for people living in an extremely remote area, 80 per cent were less likely to have emotional or behavioural high risk difficulty, compared to their peers living in urban areas,” Ms Whetham said.
“So I think that living in remote communities can be a strengthening factor, because they may be connected to their communities, their land, their culture and that can be a real strength and they have a lot of resilience."
SBS News travelled with a small team from the Royal Flying Doctor’s mental health program out to the towns of Marree and Oodnadatta prior to the coronavirus lockdown. What would usually be an almost nine-hour drive was a one hour-and-a-half flight for a small plane, despite landing on dirt runways.
Oodnadatta Aboriginal School is one of the schools to benefit from the program. Source: SBS News
The program was briefly halted for several months during the coronavirus lockdown, with services moving online to telehealth.
This week face-to-face services and visits from mental health clinicians travelling by plane resumed.
The concept for the service came from the Country South Australian Primary Health Network.
Justine Cooney a mental health clinician with the RFDS said that getting out to do work with patients face-to-face helps to prevent the need for acute psychiatric services in remote areas where they just aren't available.
"Having an actual face-to-face support service makes a difference. There are a few services in the remote areas for mental health, but getting regular contact and regular support is the biggest challenge," she said.
"We are talking about preventative care so people have that support in place that prevents people from getting to that point where they may need hospitalisation and acute care in the metropolitan areas or the cities."
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