The Courier & Advertiser (Perth and Perthshire Edition)
New support network for rural workers to be launched
FARM WELL: Multi-agency scheme aims to help farmers who may be struggling
A new support network which will coordinate and improve human and animal welfare is about to be launched for Scottish farmers.
The details of Farm Well have still to be finalised, but it will involve vets, government agencies, an animal charity and welfare organisations working together to identify farmers who are struggling for financial, health or other reasons, and to offer help before a problem becomes a crisis.
Rural charity director Nina Clancy of RSABI explained that her organisation would be involved alongside the Government’s Animal and Plant Health Agency (APHA), Scotland’s Rural College, the SSPCA, NFU Scotland and others.
“Guidelines are being drawn up for staff of government agencies or vets on how to spot signs of people suffering and raise awareness and intervene before animal welfare becomes an issue,” she said.
“If the rural payments direction spots an animal welfare issue, for example, or is worried, clearly they have to report that and it could in turn lead to a farmer losing income and subsidies, which becomes a human welfare issue.”
Ms Clancy added that the scheme is likely to be broadly based on New Zealand’s Farmstrong initiative which offers the farming community advice on health and fitness.
According to the Rev Chris Blackshaw, a Church of Scotland minister appointed to support the farming community in Ayrshire, the group will focus on the interdependency of stock and farmers.
“If a farmer is depressed or ill and can’t get on to the farm, he has to rely on people to look after his stock, and they may not look after it as well as their own,” he said.
“And if there’s no one available to do it, he may just feed them and do nothing else, so their condition deteriorates and they don’t get the full care they should get.
“Farm Well will be about tacking disease before it gets out of hand, in both animals and people.”
Mr Blackshaw, who is four months into his job to provide counselling for the Ayrshire farming community, has been well accepted at Ayr market and the other venues he uses to meet farmers.
He believes that there is scope for similar church posts to be rolled out in other parts of the country.
Mr Blackshaw said he has been to farms where producers are isolated, “borrowed to the hilt” and living in “unfit” circumstances.
He puts people in touch with agencies which can help, but he said that sometimes he is at a loss to know how to help.
“I’ve had to say to people ‘I don’t know what to do’, and the response has come back, ‘you’ve already done something because you’re here, showing that you care and that you’re listening to me’,” he said.