Regulation 3.1 states that the objectives of the rural mental health experience are to:

• Appropriately utilise the available mental health service resources when making decisions about the assessment and treatment of people with mental health problems and mental illness presenting in rural/regional areas
• Liaise with appropriate local mental health and primary health workers to manage people with mental health problems and mental illness under your care in a rural/regional area within their own community
• Liaise with health professionals outside the rural/regional area to arrange appropriate care and safe transfer of rural/regional people with severe mental illness and mental health problems, when necessary
• Demonstrate familiarity with video-conferencing, as available
• Demonstrate an awareness of the sociocultural influence of rural life on the common psychiatric disorders, in terms of the epidemiology, aetiology, presentation, management and prognosis
• Demonstrate an understanding of the special needs of members of minority groups who live in rural/regional areas
• Demonstrate an understanding of mental health issues which are unique to or especially prevalent in rural communities
• Demonstrate an understanding of the need to use different models of service delivery in different settings, appropriate to the specific community.