Workshop provided farmers with the tools to tackle mental health
Cllr Charlie Murphy, Carolyn Richardson and George Corrigan pictured at the mental health awareness night for farmers in Myshall Community Centre Photos: michaelorourkephotography.ie
A WORKSHOP aimed at providing farmers with the tools required to open up about their mental health and the confidence to ask for help when they need it was held in Myshall recently.
The mental health awareness night was organised by Rev Lester Scott, who identified a need in the local community to support farmers and rural people struggling with pressures and anxieties that are impacting their mental health. The workshop in Myshall Community Hall welcomed a wide range of professionals to join in the discussion, addressing the mental health crisis within the agricultural community alongside the prevailing stigma associated with it.
“On my rounds, I find that there is an awful lot of anxiety out there in the farming community. It’s a very isolated occupation. Farmers are out working very long hours; they’re under a lot of pressure these days and they’re struggling,” said Rev Scott.
“It’s there in the general population, too, of course, but most of my parishioners would be farmers, and there’s a private angst and turmoil that’s going on within farmers especially that’s not really being addressed or talked about in society,” he added.
Among those in attendance was Graham George, farmer and founder of advocacy group Awareness Head to Toe. Awareness Head to Toe is a completely voluntary committee formed to promote mental health, general heath and farm safety awareness throughout the rural community.
The workshop was also attended by a representative from Carlow IFA, who took the opportunity to make a presentation to Awareness Head to Toe to support its vital work.
Rev Scott aims to take action to combat the mental health “endemic” within the agri-community, which he believes is being stoked by taboos that inhibit farmers from discussing their private anxieties.
“We want to get people talking, to raise the subject to a level where it won’t be so much a taboo anymore to tell people that you’re not feeling well in your emotions,” said Rev Scott.
He hopes that his message and workshop will elicit a chain reaction in other counties, encouraging fellow mental health advocates to get on board to kick-start a national movement to tackle the mental health crisis currently enveloping farmers.
