Earlier this month, as part of our Campaign for Social Science events programme, we held an event in partnership with the University of Exeter to discuss the challenges and potential policy solutions to building resilient rural communities.
Chaired by Farmer and Former President of the National Farmers’ Union, Baroness Minette Batters, the event, which was held at the University of Exeter’s campus, featured contributions from Professor Matt Lobley, Dr Rebecca Weeler and Christine Malseed.
Minette opened the session and highlighted how services and support for rural resilience have improved in some instances and in some geographic areas, thanks in part to research that has come out of the Centre for Rural Policy Research (CRPR) at the University of Exeter.
Professor Matt Lobley, Professor of Rural Resource Management and Director of the Centre for Rural Policy (CRPR) at the University of Exeter, began his short presentation by asking whether we have a crisis in mental health in rural areas and farming. He drew an analogy with icebergs, and the unseen and unmeasured mass of mental ill-health within farming – which the CRPR at Exeter is seeking to better understand.
He added how additional policy expectations and regulations have added to the mental load, stating that even though those things are important they make the job of farming harder, more pressurised and sometimes more isolated. He concluded that the need for appropriate interventions is high but that several factors, such as funding have imposed restrictions, whilst there is also a role for local actors such as the NHS and charities to provide better, targeted support.
Dr Rebecca Wheeler, Senior Research Fellow at the Centre for Rural Policy, opened by focusing in on some of the recent research findings from the CRPR including that 36% of farming people surveyed were depressed, 49% were suffering from anxiety of some sort, and 52% were suffering from moderate or extreme levels of pain. She went on to highlight how the needs of rural areas are different from urban areas and that even though last year’s Parliamentary inquiry into rural mental health set out some good recommendations, the UK Government response to date has been underwhelming.
Rebecca pointed out that farmers are not one homogenous group and that demographics within the farming community, such as young women, may need more or different support to others. She also highlighted how the support that is required might not in fact be traditional mental health interventions and that better business support can make a huge difference in reducing farmers’ mental load, while community initiatives that foster broader wellbeing have also proven effective as mechanisms to improve mental health.
To round off the presentations, Christine Malseed, farmer, consultant and The Farming Community Network (FCN) volunteer, provided some personal reflections from her own experiences farming on Dartmoor, and living with depression. She shared how in her experience, NHS mental health support rarely comes with institutional empathy for those from farming communities, and that the speed at which a crisis like Tuberculosis (TB) can engulf a farming family is something with which systems struggle to cope – which is why organisations like the Farming Community Network play such a vital role.
You can hear more from our panel by listening to the recording below.