EMISSARIES of the Australasian Centre for Rural and Remote Mental Health will converge on the federal Parliament today to fight for the lives of farmers and their neighbours in drought-affected communities such as Bourke, Brewarrina, Walgett and Coonamble.

They will include the centre's managing director Dr Jennifer Bowers who yesterday called on the federal government to establish "consistent, culturally-specific" mental health programs aimed at building resilience and encouraging people living in agricultural communities to seek help.

Dr Bowers said "unilateral and unhelpful" defunding of programs in the past was "extraordinarily short-sighted" cost-cutting, citing United Kingdom research showing every $1 spent saved between $9 and $45 inside five years.

What's more, when proven and effective programs were needed, "they're not there".

The director also argued that people in the bush did not relate to existing promotional material aimed at preventing loss of life.

"Delicate little butterfly logos, images of depressed lawyers and men in brown suede jackets wielding golf clubs might work in Brunswick or Woollahra but they simply don't work out here," she said.

This week federal agriculture minister Barnaby Joyce is expected to argue the case for drought aid to cabinet.

Dr Bowers yesterday commended his "dogged pursuit of drought relief" but insisted it should not be confined to financial packages.

"We absolutely must address the tsunami of stress, anxiety and depression that is flooding over our drought-stricken landscape," she said.

The centre's director said the former federal government had left behind a "policy vacuum".

"Now, the current government must confront the staggering human cost, largely hidden by proud families, defensive communities and media outlets unable or unwilling to address the suicides and ongoing mental crises that flow from catastrophes like the current drought in Queensland and NSW," Dr Bowers said.