ORFC 2023: Ag charities urge farmers to seek mental health help

Agricultural charities are urging farmers struggling with their mental health to speak up and get help during these tough times.

Over the past 12 months, the UK food supply chain has been hit by the impact of the Ukraine-Russia war, Covid-19, Brexit-induced labour shortages, reduced basic payments and rampant “agflation”.

See also: How farmers can deal with mental health at times of pressure

The myriad challenges have had a huge effect on farm businesses, which have experienced tighter margins caused by soaring costs for fertiliser, feed, fuel and energy.

All of this has taken an immense toll on the mental health of many farmers across the industry, said Caron Whaley, director of services at the Royal Agricultural Benevolent Institution (Rabi).

Ms Whaley took part in a panel discussion “Can farming and food traders weather the economic storm?” at the Oxford Real Farming Conference (ORFC) on 5 January.

She spoke about the professional mental health support options available to farming people and Rabi’s farming-focused, accredited mental health training.

Big Farming Survey

Ms Whaley shared some of the findings of its Big Farming Survey, which showed a strong association between the health of a farm business and good mental health.

She said the survey attracted a “fantastic demographic” of more than 15,000 people working in the farming industry in England and Wales.

“Unfortunately, more than a third of people (36%) in farming were showing they were possibly or probably depressed when you score them on a clinical scale. That’s a pretty shocking figure,” said Ms Whaley, commenting on the survey results.

Almost half of the people who replied to the Rabi survey (47%) said they were also consistently struggling with anxiety.

The other main finding was that the general level of mental wellbeing in the farming population is worse than the general UK population.

“Again, this was really concerning to us,” added Ms Whaley.

To address these issues, Rabi launched three new services: telephone access to professional, in-person counselling with a farming-focused practitioner, an online “click and chat” service which allows people who don’t want to talk to someone or see them face-to-face to get help and third, help for people to normalise conversations around mental help.

In July, Rabi also launched return to school grants of up to £500 per child for farming families which had to be capped at £1.5m due to huge demand from farmers.

Ms Whaley said Rabi has seen a 400% increase in the uptake of its mental health services over the past year.

“That suggests an ever-growing need for both financial and mental health support for the people at the very heart of farming,” she added.

“Lots of people out there do not know there are support organisations available to them.

“I would urge you to help people contact us. In particular, if they don’t want to talk to someone, there’s our fantastic Click and Chat option where they can get online and access a counsellor 24/7.”

FCN charity

Mark Thomas, from the Farming Community Network (FCN), a voluntary organisation and charity that supports farmers and families within the rural community in England and Wales, said people contact the service for a wide range of reasons – both for general and farming-specific problems.

These included: “Things like financial difficulties, financial relationships, physical and mental health problems, challenges about succession and planning for the future, as well as the consequences of animal disease, bovine TB for instance and avian influenza,” said Mr Thomas.