Dr Ray King, who has an OAM for his work with older men and suicide prevention, played a key role in organising the "Older Men, New Ideas" (OMNI) group in the town.

He said the public meeting was funded by the Murrumbidgee Primary Health Network to discuss older men's health and promote social connection.

"The recent research by the Psychological Society in 2018 at Adelaide University showed that loneliness and isolation were two of the most deadly killers of older men," he said.

Dr King said older men in rural areas needed extra support to maintain good social health.

"When farmers decide to retire, they sell up their property," he said.

"The rural background is important because when they move to the city or the town, they're completely lost.

"They haven't got the regular demand for work, so they feel at a loss and they don't have the friends."

He said that farmers' wives usually coped better with the change and found it easier than their husbands to make new connections.

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"The thing with loneliness is it's contagious," he said.

"It causes people to withdraw, to become depressed, they don't pay much attention to their diet ... but most of all their attitude to life changes and they become very difficult to manage," he said.

"When you overcome that by making genuine friends, all that changes."

He said it was "very difficult" to get men to come along and talk about their emotional well being, but nine men attended the first meeting, with ages ranging from 70- to 97-years-old.

"That's really quite an achievement," he said.

"It's always difficult to break into a new community, especially when you don't live there."

Dr King said the men came for various reasons.

"One of the has only been in Holbrook for a year and hadn't got to meet many people at all," he said, "so he saw some value there."

"One or two others were farmers, another one was there because his wife suggested he should.

"We were thrilled that we had so many come and so many who were interested in joining the group."

The next meeting of the Holbrook OMNI group will be held at the Returned Servicemen's Club on Friday at 10am.

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