Mental illness is unevenly distributed in Australia, with a particular areas of need in rural communities. Unfortunately, there is a critical shortage of rural doctors, particularly in psychiatry. There is also a worsening shortage of rural GPs, particularly female GPs. Mental health work in General Practice rests disproportionately on female doctors, and the financial and psychosocial burden of this work is increasing. Patients with deep and complex trauma, patients with disabilities and patients with personality vulnerabilities have difficulty accessing other mental health services in rural Australia, and so rely on their GPs for care.