Helping our youth to be resilient

Chairs and directors of boards and the CEOs and staff of many companies were present. This was an indication of the importance of the topic – rural mental health.

The event was organised by Mike Green (Fonterra), managed by Ro Duncum and Jamie Mackay and entertained with a debate involving rural leaders and personalities (James Meager, Sarah Perriam-Lampp and George Dodson for the affirmative; Julia Jones, Suze Redmayne and Jenna Smith for the negative). The moot was that the grass is greener in the South Island.

The evening and online silent auction raised over $300,000 for the Rural Support Trust. And while everybody involved applauded the result, we were also bewailing the need.

Each year between 15 and 25 farmers take their own lives. This is the coroner’s report estimate. Statistics New Zealand estimates that suicide rates are 40% higher in rural areas (16 per 100,000 people) than in the general population (11.2 for every 100,000). In some areas in America the farmer suicide rate is estimated at three times the national average. In France the increase is approximately 25% greater than average. It is a global phenomenon, and whichever figure is picked, it is too high.

University of Georgia research indicates four underpinning problems that pre-dispose the mental health crises leading to suicide: barriers due to the nature of farming, including time demands of farming and cultural stigma in help-seeking; acceptable messaging, including conversations as part of general health; accessibility of information to assist mental health; and basic support mechanisms through ‘you are not alone' messaging.

In Australia, analysis of surveys and interviews showed that a number of environmental influences are likely to contribute to the increased risk of suicide. In contrast, research for New Zealand has focussed on using the coroners’ reports to identify what the risk factors are. It concluded that financial stress and weather events made a negligible contribution. The main triggers were not very different from the risk factors for the general population. What made the difference was access to firearms. Almost 40% of farm suicides involved firearms, compared with 8% in the general population over the same time. Further, it was noted that among farm suicides in New Zealand, young male farm labourers predominated, rather than farm owners or managers.

“For many young men, relationship losses, acute alcohol intoxication and ready access to a firearm formed a common constellation of risk factors.”

Statistics NZ indicates that alcohol abuse might be decreasing in the young, but drug abuse is increasing. The data that appear periodically on the news that rural areas have the worst abuse.

All of this boils down to the fact that ‘it’s complicated’, ‘there are no easy answers’, and solutions will be context dependent.

But if nobody knows that somebody is having a problem, the solution will be absent.

RST tries to work at the top of the cliff, preventing people from going over the edge to the ambulance, but there are so many people and so little time.

University of Georgia research concluded that farmers’ stoic identities and reluctance to admit mental health struggles, meant that speaking with those close to farmers may help improve understanding of what is needed to tailor farmer suicide prevention strategies.

The New Zealand research promoted the concept of a range of rural suicide prevention initiatives to address various farm suicide risk profiles. In particular, young male labourers often have no contact with health services prior to death, “suggesting that rural suicide prevention efforts need to be positioned within community, farming and sports organisations, as well as health and social service providers”.

Farmer morale was up at Fieldays, reflecting lower interest rates and good product prices, but relationships will always break up, and alcohol and drugs will always be possible to find. What is needed is the resilience training in youth to ensure that it is embedded as part of growing up.

The outcome of the debate was the unanimous decision that the grass is greener in New Zealand; the Rural Support Trust is working with farmers to enable them to see a positive future.

Dr Jacqueline Rowarth, Adjunct Professor Lincoln University, is a director of DairyNZ and Ravensdown, and a member of the Scientific Council of the World Farmers’ Organisation. She had the privilege and pleasure of chairing and adjudicating the RST debate. This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.