Thank you for breaking the silence! #FarmerMentalHealth

#FarmerMentalHealth

I couldn’t have been more pleased with the impact of my humble post from yesterday, which aimed to raise further awareness of the need to talk about mental health in the farming community. It continues to be a stigma, and needn’t be. My social media platforms, both on facebook and twitter were buzzing through the day and hundreds of people got involved in the campaign, retweeting posts, writing messages about their own experiences or spreading my blog post around. I want to thank everybody who has got involved so far. It’s an issue that I believe in strongly and it has been great to see so many people get behind it. There is of course still a long way to go and we must make sure that we continue to break the silence. It will only be successful if talking about it becomes ‘normal’. The stigma must disappear. Anything we can do to support the brilliant charities out there who dedicate their time to helping farmers, young and old, who either have concerns for their mental health or who have existing mental health problems, will be time well spent.

I also want to thank Mark Whitley, editor of the Countryman Magazine, who is profiling the issue in January’s issue of The Countryman.

I said it yesterday, and I’ll say it again. Please do continue to spread the word on social media with a message in support of farmers who suffer from mental health, using the hashtag #FarmerMentalHealth and perhaps consider making a donation to The Farming Community Network through their JustGiving Page. Alternatively, donate to Papyrus through their Just Giving Page.

Thank you for your support!