Frontier Services is sharing an important message at the Royal Adelaide Show this week: when it comes to men’s health, blokes from bush are straggling behind their city counterparts.

For the next two weeks, Frontier Services has a spot in the Farm Expo at the Royal Adelaide Show. Frontier Services is using the opportunity to tell people about the significant gap between country men and city men in terms of health.

Visitors to the Show can read some of the staggering statistics on men’s health in the Frontier Services display. For a start, life expectancy for men in the bush is about eight years less than men in the city, 72.1 years– compared with 79.8 years. Men outside major cities are 18 per cent more likely to report a recent injury. More rural men report diabetes and they are more likely to drink and smoke heavily.
Suicide rates are 10 times higher for never-married men in remote and very remote areas compared with married men living in major cities.

Sturt Patrol Minister Paul Glazbrook , based in Booleroo, SA, and Parkin Patrol Minister Gary Ferguson, based in Hawker, SA, will be on hand at the Show to share some of their experience working with rural men.
Gary, who has himself battled with depression, said men in the bush tend to brush off the signs of poor mental health.
“A typical country approach is, ‘she’ll be right mate, I don’t need a doctor’, mostly because of their belief that men have to be strong,” said Pastor Gary. “We need to find creative ways to support people in remote areas, we need community education around the signs of depression and we need to encourage men to seek help.”

Meanwhile, anyone who visits Frontier Services at the Show and registers to host a Great Outback BBQ to raise money for the people of remote Australia will go into the draw to win fantastic prizes.

Frontier Services continues its long-standing support of the Show. This year Frontier Services is a major prize giver for the Beef Cattle Competition, awarding prizes for All Breed Supreme Champion Beef Cattle, All Breed Supreme Champion Female and All Breed Supreme Champion Bull.