Green and Pleasant?

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By Ruth Kerr, Communications, The Gamekeepers’ Welfare Trust

Trigger warning: mentions suicide, depression and substance abuse. Please read with care.

In recent years we’ve seen growing evidence of the positive impact nature has on our health and wellbeing. So much so that green social prescribing is increasingly represented in both policy and strategy at national and local levels across government sectors. This is great news: we often read 1 in 4 people in the UK experience poor mental health. However, sitting alongside this is the stark reality of poor mental health among the very people who maintain those green spaces so many others benefit from. Each week, we lose around three people in farming and agriculture by suicide [ Office for National Statistics (2021), Public Health Scotland (2021), OpenDataNI (2018)].

In 2020, the Farm Safety Foundation found four out of five farm workers under the age of 40 said poor mental health was the biggest problem they faced. In 2020, the Gamekeepers’ Welfare Trust found almost half of respondents to their survey were interested in techniques to help them stop worrying about work. Government research on availability and take up of mental health services in rural communities found enough areas of concern to make ‘urgent and meaningful Government action on rural mental health essential’ [Rural Mental Health report by the Environment, Food & Rural Affairs Committee]. While visiting the countryside can be a relaxing experience, working there can be lonely and all-consuming.

What are the causes and contributors to poor mental health in rural livelihoods?

Factors like weather and disease have always caused concern at some level and are to some degree expected. But there are other factors when we work in remote places.

Many roles like farming and gamekeeping involve regular long, anti-social hours, leaving work-life balance consistently out of kilter. This can make family life and relationships challenging, and long hours can mean lack of sleep. Juggling the different demands of home and work life in a rural livelihood is a real issue. Self-medicating, such as drinking alcohol to relax and sleep, can cause its own problems.

Working alone reduces day-to-day contact with people and opportunities to open up. Living remotely can make it difficult to have a regular social life and much-needed downtime. Feeling alone or anxious for any reason can cause a great strain; this can be magnified if we’re physically remote too.

Recently we’ve seen new factors causing additional strain. Covid 19 isolation and Avian flu have all taken an enormous toll on rural individuals and families. The last few years has seen illness, isolation, loss of income and in some cases loss of employment and home in rural areas.

Trust and Habit

It can be hard to tell someone we feel low, or we’re worried, or we’re suicidal if we’re not used to sharing emotions. And trust might be a barrier. Will the person I speak to understand my job? Do they have knowledge of the way I have to live? Can they understand that there is no-one but me to do the work? We may worry that talking could lead to difficulties like losing a firearms licence.

It's Good to Talk

Earlier this year the Gamekeepers’ Welfare Trust launched their check in with a mate campaign, encouraging everyone to contact a mate and have a chat. It’s been tremendously successful, with people sharing the logo (in English, Welsh and Gaelic) and car stickers in the planning. The next step on from check in is My Plan, our series of podcasts with ideas to keep health on the right track.

It’s OK Not to Be Ok

All too often molehills can become mountains if we don’t have support. Regardless of whether you have a molehill or a mountain on your mind, look for assistance.

If you want to talk to someone who ‘gets’ your job, your lifestyle and some of the specific challenges they can bring, there are organisations you can contact. They are confidential and, unless stated, free of charge.

National Directory of Farm and Rural Support Groups

This brilliant directory is from The Royal Countryside Fund. Most of the organisations below are in it, along with many more, including regional ones close to you. You can see it online here. Alternatively you can save it to your device, or print it and keep it handy, from here.

The Gamekeepers’ Welfare Trust www.thegamekeeperswelfaretrust.com
Gamekeepers, riverkeepers, gillies, stalkers, boatmen, guides, ghillies & their families.
Jamie’s Helpline 0300 1233 088 Across the UK

Farm Community Network www.farmwell.org.uk
Helpline 03000 111 999 Across England & Wales

RABI – helping farming people www.rabi.org.uk
Helpline 0800 188 4444 Across England & Wales

RSABI - Supporting People in Scottish Agriculture www.rsabi.org.uk
Helpline 0808 1234 555 Across Scotland

Perennial – helping people in horticulture www.perennial.org.uk 
Helpline 0800 093 8543 Mon – Fri 9.30am – 4pm (excl Bank Hols)

YANA (You Are Not Alone) Rural Mental Health Support www.yanahelp.org 
Helpline 0300 323 0400

Farm Safety Foundation www.yellowwellies.or
Across England & Wales

FFLAG www.fflag.org.uk
A national organisation dedicated to supporting parents and families and their LGBT+ members.
Helpline 0300 688 0368 (national rate) 10am – 8pm, Wed & Thu; 10am – 6pm Fri & Sat

Agrespect www.agrespect.com Promoting and supporting diversity in the countryside.

Worried about someone?

• Let them talk to you – it can help reduce some stress.
• Be trustworthy – they’ve opened up and shared with you.
• Be reassuring – feeling low and deeper than low are signs of illness, not weakness.
• Don’t judge - hearing ‘it’s not that bad’ is not at all helpful.
• Talk about help – it’s important to get professional help and you can encourage this.
• Remember – talking about suicide won’t make someone suicidal.

If you or someone you know feels like ending their life, call 999, call the Samaritans on 116 123, or go to A&E and ask for the nearest crisis resolution team (health care professionals who work with people in severe distress).

Ruth Kerr, Communications, The Gamekeepers’ Welfare Trust

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