Farmers need more help to hit their mental magic day.

Like many of us, the emotional side of farming for me is generally stacked aside like a round bale and not thought about until it’s really needed and things are getting a bit tight.

If you open a bad one it’s far easier to hide it in the dunkel than think about what you could do to fix it in the future.

Mental health is probably something I hadn’t spent much time thinking about before I came home to farm a couple of years ago.

Some might say it’s surprising, but the majority of the time I like my own company so I thought I would have no issues from going from working with a large group of people to mostly working alone.

A few things hit me this spring, however.

A teary encounter with a neighbour in the vegetable aisle of my local shop was the first.

Awkwardly holding a bag of spuds, I shifted from one foot to the other trying to think of something to say to make them feel less exhausted and less distraught about a tough lambing season.

And then I realised that I didn’t have to say anything.

Sometimes you just need to talk to someone, anyone.

A quick glance through my ever growing mound of Green Cert textbooks found little or no reference to mental health.

Surely, health and safety at this basic level should include some form of guidance on mental health. While issues such as social isolation, stress and depression are becoming more openly discussed, this omission surprised me.

With agriculture having the highest fatal and non-fatal level of accidents of any sector in Ireland, I was recently thinking about the link between farm safety and mental health.

I assumed the two would run in parallel. I thought things only went wrong when you were overstretched and not feeling 100% mentally.

While the recent ESRI report on risk-taking and accidents concluded there is no direct link between work-related stress and risk-taking, I think it’s important to step back and look at overall mental health and wellbeing as a factor in farm safety.

Young farmers came out as the highest risk-takers in the report, which is worrying when some form of agricultural education is almost a necessity these days.

With a labour shortage in the dairy sector looming large, young farmers must be in touch with mental health and be well equipped to find a balance between a rewarding career in agriculture and their personal health and wellbeing. Adam Henson from the BBC programme Countryfile recently spoke out, saying that farmers need to stop whingeing about being underpaid and do a better job at celebrating their lives.

I’m not sure how that sits with me.

Jane Shackleton

I know that when I walk the farm every morning I’m grateful for my job and the surroundings that it brings. We all have a duty to ourselves to manage our own mental wellbeing but external support must go further than just a recognition of these issues.

I also know that there are factors out there that are beyond our control and if we are to continue to funnel towards over reliance on subsidies, delayed payments and cheap food then small and part-time farmers have to be realistic about what’s important in life and make a change to the things they can control.

The current approach to health and safety in farming needs to embrace mental health as one of the most important factors.

Pieta House and the IFA run the Mind Our Farm Families helpline. For anyone looking to talk to someone, you can ring the phone line on 1890 130 022.

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