President of the Farmer’s Union of Wales (FUW), Glyn Roberts, has said that the spotlight must be kept on mental health in rural areas, ahead of World Mental Health Day on Monday (October 10).
The theme of this year’s World Mental Health Day, set by the World Federation for Mental Health, is ‘make mental health and wellbeing for all a global priority’.
Roberts said that all over the world, people are experiencing “tough and challenging times”.
“A lot of these challenges are out of our control as individuals, some of them are not,” he said.
“Whilst we night not be able to stop the war in Ukraine, scrap a myriad of agricultural regulations or directly influence the cost-of-living crisis and poor state of economy, there are small things we can do to help us have better mental health.”
Roberts said that the FUW has been a long-standing supporter of the Daniel Picton-Jones (DPJ) Foundation, which he said is “doing a sterling job providing mental health services to our rural communities across Wales”.
“Mental health, or better say poor mental health, remains as important for us to tackle as it has ever been and we stand by our commitment to keep the spotlight on mental health in rural areas for as long as it remains a problem,” Roberts said.
University of Exeter study
A recent study has shown that putting healthcare professionals in a place where farmers meet and work with others regularly, i.e. livestock marts, can help end the stigma in farming communities surrounding mental health.
The study, titled ‘The role of the livestock auction mart in promoting help-seeking behavior change among farmers in the UK‘, was carried out by researchers at the University of Exeter.
Several farmers across the range of age groups, as well as auction operators, admitted to having experienced challenges with their mental health.
The majority of farmers interviewed reacted positively to the possibility of health hubs at auction marts, the study said.
