The Irish Cattle and Sheep Farmers’ Association (ICSA) is to set up a working group for farmer isolation and suicide prevention, according to ICSA president, Dermot Kelleher.
Speaking to Agriland about an upcoming farmers’ meeting on Wednesday (March 16) at 8:00p.m, Kelleher said a range of topics will be covered including mental health within the farming community.
According to Kelleher, when it is up and running, the group will be able to talk to those who get in contact, and connect them with somebody who can help when they feel they cannot cope.
Kelleher said that a person will be able to ring members of the group or the office, and they will be helped to find a qualified person to talk to.
“Sometimes you can think the problem is worse than it is, it blows up in your head, but there is help out there,” he said.
The meeting will take place at the Firgrove Hotel in Mitchelstown and Kelleher says it is open to all farmers.
“It’s not just for ICSA, it’s not our meeting as such, it’s an information meeting open to all farmers and look we will try and help everyone we can. It’s as simple as that,” he explained.
Speaking about why the association decided to discuss suicide prevention, Kelleher, who is chairing the meeting, said it was raised at their recent annual general meeting (AGM) in Portlaoise.
Towards the end of the AGM, a man in the crowd spoke about how he had lost a friend to suicide which prompted many others there to share similar experiences.
Kelleher said that he couldn’t close down the meeting as so many people began to share stories, which frightened him and made him realise something needed to be done.
“There must have been 25 or 30 people that spoke about how they were affected by suicide or how a member of their family had had a near miss.
“It frightened me to think that of 100 people in a room, over 30% of them had experienced suicidal thoughts or knew somebody who had died by suicide,” Kelleher said.
According to Kelleher, isolation and loneliness can be a big problem among farmers. On top of this, they often work long hours and may experience financial strain. He said:
“The pressure on farmers is unreal. There’s an extreme amount of paperwork as well.
“It could be an impact of a department application, you make some mistake and your money is held up and you’ve bills to pay. It could be marital problems, or it could be something that happens and you just can’t cope anymore, and this [suicide] is the end result, because a lot of the time you’ve no one to talk to.”
Kelleher expects the meeting to be well attended; there will be a number of guest speakers on the night including the ICSA vice-president for Munster, Denis O’Callaghan, ICSA general secretary, Eddie Punch, and Brian Whelan from Mitchelstown Credit Union, who will discuss finance and loans for farmers under financial strain.
Finance for farmers
Brian Whelan from Mitchelstown in Co. Cork will speak at the meeting about the credit union’s Cultivate Programme, which provides short to medium-term loans specific to the needs of farming members.
There is a group of credit unions across the country involved in the programme. Speaking about Cultivate, Kelleher said:
“But what we find about this that’s fantastic is you can go and sit down and the man that you’re talking to is the man that’s going to say yay or nay.
“With this Cultivate, you’re dealing with locals, the credit union, they’ll listen to you. You’re not dealing with some guy in Dublin who hasn’t a clue about you other than what’s on your paper,” he concluded.
Crop growing and input costs
Kelleher, who attended the first meeting of the National Fodder and Food Security Committee (NFFSC) last Friday (March 11), will also bring details of that discussion to Wednesday’s meeting.
There will be discussion around the possibility of farmers growing crops that they may not be experienced with as well as the rising cost of inputs, which is an ongoing issue according to Kelleher.
“There will be opportunities for farmers to ask questions and we will try to do our best to answer them. Our main goal is to help everyone as best we can,” he said.