The Mayo Ultra Cyclists are currently undertaking an impressive Wild Atlantic Way Ultra Cycle this week – with mental health a key theme in this year’s challenge.
As the cyclists power on through what is an arduous challenge, one of the three mental health charities they are fundraising for is the Make the Moove initiative – but what is Make the Moove?
To find out, Agriland spoke to president of Macra na Feirme – and one of the Make the Moove founders – John Keane.
Speaking to Agriland ahead of the cycle, Keane – who, along with a few Macra colleagues, is partaking in the cycle today (Tuesday, July 20) – said that the organisation is “delighted and honoured” to be one of the cycle’s beneficiaries.
Make the Moove’s origins
Starting with its origins, Keane highlighted how he and fellow founder Jonathan Dwyer noticed a high level of suicide in their area of Laois and north Tipperary in 2018 and early 2019.
Seeking to take action on this, the two dairy farmers began to organise a “safe talk” with their Macra na Feirme branch – Devil’s Bit Macra in north Tipperary – to raise awareness and provide tools for dealing with stress and anxiety, with Keane noting:
“It branched out a bit wider when we looked out for the services in our area to deal specifically with rural issues and issues relating to farmers. We sort of found there was a gap within those services within our area specifically, particularly for young farmers and people living in rural communities.
“So, from that, we said we may as well try and see if we can do something about it ourselves.
“We got in touch with Healthy Ireland and we were lucky enough that they came on board with us, and they came up with a plan – a consultation which we did with the farmers and rural people of north Tipperary in the spring of 2019.
“We had five different meetings; we had keynote speakers who spoke about their own battles with depression and anxiety, who were from farming backgrounds and active farmers.
“Macra members like our own Bill Gleeson and Anthony Culleton from Camross spoke at our events, as well as older [volunteers] like Joe Parlon, George Ramsbottom and others.
“They told their personal stories and from that then, once we had that piece of the work done, people who attended the meeting got to tell their own stories in smaller break-out groups; 10 people around a table.
“We asked them two simple questions: what are the main issues that cause stress in their lives; and what would you feel as being the solutions that you think would best help.
“It was peer-to-peer – designing your own intervention is the core of what community health care looks like.
“From that we got findings; we found out that rural isolation was a huge issue back then – it came up at every single one of our meetings, at every single one of our tables,” the Macra president said, adding that financial issues and inter-family relationships were also issues of note among farmers.
“The biggest [solution] that came back was to set up a rural dedicated mental health support service within rural communities that would cover the whole island of Ireland.
“It was a rural-centred mental health support service – and that’s where our ambition to set this up came from, from those people who attended that meeting.”
While strongly aligned with Macra, Keane stressed that Make the Moove is an all-inclusive organisation that incorporates farmers and rural-dwellers of all ages – with a number of volunteers in their mid-40s, 50s and 60s.
Mental health ‘toolkits’
Continuing, Keane explained that another intervention highlighted by the groups was to disseminate mental health toolkits to farmers in Tipperary.
With the help of further funding from Healthy Ireland, over the winter months of 2019 and 2020, the group sent out 5,000 such toolkits to farmers across Tipperary through channels such as local co-ops and marts.
“We got a fantastic response from that – and people contacted us saying it made an impact and signposted them to where services were,” the Laois farmer explained.
When asked what was in these toolkits, Keane said that the speakers from the first events put their stories down on paper, adding: “We put together a booklet on their stories and how they got to where they are, and how they cope with their daily lives now; what sort of stress relievers they use and what practices they use to try and cope with stress.
“Then we partnered up with AIB to put together a completely new leaflet that they developed in conjunction with us around financial management; simple control tools around how to manage your finances and cost controls, cashflow budgeting.”
In addition, information for other mental health services such as Pieta House and Samaritans was included.
Mental health and impact of Covid
Funding had also been designated to train 20 mental health “farm champions” in Tipperary who would be trained to recognise the signs of stress and anxiety, how to manage one’s mental health – practical measures and knowing who to turn to for support – and how to go to public events and deliver training to others on the matter.
20 people put themselves forward – but unfortunately, Covid-19 then hit, meaning the training had to be postponed. Following discussions with the volunteers, it was decided to hold off for in-person training for greater impact, rather than trying the online route.
However, Make the Moove has not been idle during Covid, Keane stressed, explaining:
“We recognise that we’re very small and relatively new; but the amount of people that would have reached out to us over the last 18 months…
“We’ve been heartened in some respects that what we’re doing is hitting a chord – but also it’s frightening to hear the level of stress and worry that there is out there and the different pressures that there are on farmers.”
Keane noted that they had received “numerous calls and messages about people at various stages of feeling under pressure and stress, from simple financial matters to people who were contemplating suicide”.
“From our point of view, we have identified that there’s a gap, we’ve identified that people are not accessing the services that are available for various different reasons, but the rural empathy side of things is probably the major one.”
Progress and plans for future
Taking advice and pointers from rural support networks that are already established in places such as Northern Ireland, the UK, Canada, Australia and New Zealand, the organisation has gathered research over the last 18 months on the benefit a broader programme would offer rural dwellers.
“As we move forward, funding is going to be crucial first and foremost, to go from industry and from stakeholders as well,” he said.
A key issue that needs to be dealt with head-on, he added is the stigma that’s still present around mental health.
“If you had a broken arm or a broken leg or had some sort of physical injury everybody would be asking you how you are or how long will it be until you’re off crutches; those sort of conversations. Yet when there’s a battle going on between your two ears we don’t seem to do as much talking about it.”
Looking at progress to date, and the organisation’s plans for the future, Keane noted that, outside its original base in Tipperary, Make the Moove has been successful with funding schemes in other counties, such as Roscommon, Waterford and Laois, so the organisation is expanding on a smaller scale in different regions.
Work and contact is ongoing with rural support organisations in other countries in what has been steady progress since the onset of Covid-19 – with the ultimate goal of establishing a nationwide network. While there is plenty still to be done, the course is set – and support is there.
For those interested in learning more about Make the Moove, further information can be obtained here or from John Keane and Jonathan Dwyer, who can be contacted on: 085-7049175; and 087-6778938.