One of the talks at the European Dairy Farmers (EDF) congress focussed on the topic of mental health among the farming community.
Two speakers at this talk were David Kerr, a dairy farmer from Co. Laois and Jonathon Dwyer, also a dairy farmer from Co. Laois.
Mental health
David Kerr discussed his personal experience with depression and offered some advice to anyone that may be suffering with their mental health.
David said that his own issues with his mental health began in 2008 during a period when a lot of building work was being done on his farm.
He said rules around slurry storage changed that year and the development of the farm needed to be compliant.
David stated that a number of issues built up for him, including bad weather and an illness in the family.
“It was like a storm and I was struggling to cope with all these issues,” he said.
David said that there was also a lot of cash going out of the farm, which resulted in him having to deal with a cashflow issue for the first time in his life.
Commenting, he said: “I didn’t know what was happening at the time, but looking back now I know it was reactive depression.
“I was reacting to the situation I was in very well and retreated into state of depression over time.
“A lot of people describe it as a cloud developing and that is a perfect description of my situation.”
David told the congress how it was a lack of sleep that made him speak to his general practitioner (GP) and how at the time, he was prescribed sleeping tablets.
A lack of improvement resulted in David drying off the cows early and focussing on what was most important – getting better.
“With the help of medication and the right peoplem, I was able to get over it and haven’t looked back since,” he said.
Commenting on how he works to stay in good mental health, David said: “I try to avoid putting myself in a stressful situation again.
“I have taught myself how to cope with stress better, by taking time off and getting exercise.”
Make a Moove
Jonathon Dwyer then spoke about setting up the Make a Moove programme, which was set up in south Co. Laois and north Co. Tipperary, areas that have high numbers of young men who have died by suicide.
He told the congress how he got the idea from New Zealand and had to trick young farmers into talking about their mental health.
Jonathon explained how in New Zealand, groups would invite famous rugby players into talk, but the ultimate goal was get farmers to talk about their mental health.
Jonathon explained that they are now in a position where they do not need to hide the fact that the focus is on mental health.
Advice
David and Jonathon offered some advice to farmers that may be struggling with their mental health.
They both suggested that anyone struggling should to talk to someone and tell them they are struggling.
“The first thing is tell someone and I would recommend you go to your GP first, they are much better trained in this than they were 15 years ago,” said David.
“Some people struggle to differentiate between cashflow pressures and real financial problems,” he continued.
“A cashflow issue will wash through the system eventually, but a financial difficultly will take much longer to sort.
“They are too completely different things that can put you in the wrong place.”
Jonathon said it is all about normalising the conversation and making people feel like they are not on their own.
“Something we would like to see is more people being able to identify someone that may be having an issue,” he said.
“In New Zealand, all the sale representatives, bank managers and other people that have regular contact with farmers are trained to spot people that may be having an issue.
“It is something we are looking at now, to get these people trained to identify people that may be struggle.”
Summing up, David said: “They say ‘look out for each other’ and I don’t think there could be a better analogy.”