Call for industry to take mental health survey
With a growing recognition of the mental and emotional stresses facing the sector, the farming community is being asked to help find the best way of improving both the understanding and uptake of mental health services by the industry.
Researchers at Robert Gordon University (RGU) in Aberdeen, aided by NFU Scotland and local farmers, have been studying the mental wellbeing of Scotland’s farmers for a number of years – and are now set to begin developing and testing the best ways of providing support for this crucial area which has often been avoided by those involved in agriculture.
But before plans are finalised, the team is looking for feedback from the wider farming community across the country on which services and approaches would be most acceptable to those working in an industry which has more than its fair share of mental health challenges.
“Our farmers’ mental health generally is under severe pressure, and this has escalated due to Covid-19,” said Lorna Paterson, NFU Scotland’s regional manager who has been involved in the project.
On top of the well-recognised challenges of coping with the weather, crop and livestock diseases and the uncertainties of Brexit, Paterson said that additional regulatory and legislative pressures had added to the burden in recent years.
“Farmers face so many inspection processes from various organisations, and the repercussions for failing to meet requirements, or for making minor errors can be severe,” said Paterson. “This can cause financial, as well as mental health problems for the farmer.
“We need to find practical and simple avenues to allow our farmers to speak freely and in confidence about their problems, and this survey gives farmers the scope to suggest what their preferred methods would be, in order to achieve this.”
Urging all farmers to engage and respond to this survey as soon as possible
– and before harvest work reached its peak – she said that some of the options included providing training to trusted partners working in agricultural circles, such as vets, auctioneers and other professionals, to whom farmers often opened up.
She added that other options were the provision of a free telephone helpline or drop-in clinics at marts:
“Bascially there are a number of options and we want to focus on the ones most likely to be taken up by farmers,” said Paterson.
Professor Kay Cooper, who leads the research team, said they knew that farmers and farming communities were facing significant uncertainty and finding the right way to help improve the mental health and wellbeing of farmers and their families was crucial.
“We will use the results of this survey to further develop and then test out a suitable intervention, with input from members of the farming community throughout,” commented Cooper.
The survey, which doesn’t ask any personal details and is totally anonymous closes on 16 August and is available at: https://robertgordonuniversity.onlinesurveys.ac.uk/farmers-wellbeing