Five day challenge activity encouraged as farmers focus on their wellbeing
One
of Australia’s largest rural charities, Rural Aid, has compiled a five-day
wellbeing challenge for primary producers during National Farm Safety Week.
The
organisation says that prioritising the wellbeing and welfare of primary
producers is extremely important particularly in recognising many on-farm hazards
and risks.
“Farming
is already a high risk job. You’re working from heights, with complex
machinery, handling livestock, and the single vehicle incident rate is huge. On
top of that, stress caused by long working hours, drought, bushfires, financial
worries, price uncertainty, and high input costs is ever present,” CEO John
Warlters says.
“There
is a correlation between people suffering stress or overwhelm and accidents
occurring.”
Toowoomba-based
counselor Jane McCollum recently ran a webinar for primary producers on how to
deal with the sense of overwhelm that is prevalent in the agricultural
community, as part of Rural Aid’s On the Couch webinar series.
“It’s
very common for farmers to get overwhelmed, it’s just the nature of the
uncertainty, demands of what they do and the external pressures coupled with
personal pressures, or challenges at home,” Ms McCollum said.
“As a
counsellor, I meet with plenty of primary producers whose state of overwhelm is
quite chronic in nature, to the point that we do actually need some assistance
in coming out of that state. This is why it’s so important to know that simple,
regular activities can keep overwhelm in check.
“I
liken it to being struck by a dust storm; you’re not able to breathe, you’re
not able to see ahead of you. In that moment, in that absolute moment, you can
tend to be a little bit panicked and even freeze. That’s the feeling of being
overwhelmed.
“For
example, you might want to go into town from the property to fuel up, go to the
bank, the post office and you have the shopping list with you. But you find
yourself heading into town and you realize that you don’t even know why you’re
there. This is often a good sign you’re overwhelmed.”
“You
might be unwell and fatigued, but there’s no discernable reason to feel that
way. That’s another common sign. Or, you’re having trouble focusing and
completing simple tasks like washing clothes and folding them up, cooking a
meal, weeding, spraying your weeds and cleaning up the shed – things that you
would have usually been able to do okay but, for some reason, you’re just not
being able to carry out those tasks.”
During
National Farm Safety Week, our Rural Aid counsellors are supporting our farmers
– asking for all farmers to consider a challenge activity each day for five
days.
Monday task: Make time to relax
“The
best of engines needs a cooling off period, and your prize stock horse still
needs a rest period. Lock in time out for yourself today to relax and to stop
for at least 20 mins. This looks different for everybody: watching their
favorite TV series, playing Candy Crush, reading a book, getting out into the
garden or doing some photography. Some people love to just go and sit on the
fence with a cup of tea and look at the view.”
Tuesday task: Enjoyable exercise
“There’s
a difference between physical activity and exercise. Physical activity is great
in its own sense, but it’s all about work. When your work is stressing you,
there’s going to still be issues of stress around that physical activity. This
is where exercise is different. It’s intentional and it’s a period of time that
you can just be doing it for yourself.
Maybe leave the quad bike and walk to the mailbox today. Try doing even
a walk for 10 minutes three times today if a full 30 minutes is untenable.”
Wednesday task: Talk about what’s up
“Talk
over an issue that’s troubling you with a professional, friend, or family
member. One of the exacerbating factors in rural Australia is our propensity to
keep it all in, which has long been viewed as very admirable, but it’s actually
dangerous.”
Thursday task: Pros and cons list
“Whether
personally and professionally, when you’re trying to make a big decision, do a
pros and cons list. When you put things down on paper and you see what’s good
and what’s not so good about that decision, you start to see the big picture.”
Friday task: Break it down
“Breaking
big jobs or big challenges down into smaller parts is really important when it
comes to dealing with overwhelm because we tend to try to tackle the bigness of
the issue which isn’t helpful. Break it down and deal with it bit by bit or
step by step. Some other words here that you can see are: streamline,
disentangle, clarify, clean it up, order, unscramble, facilitate, get down to
basics, reduce, and make clear. I use a big sheet of paper.”
You
can watch the full webinar on overwhelm www.ruralaid.org.au/counselling/
END
About
Rural Aid
Rural
Aid is one of Australia’s largest rural charities. Well known for the highly
successful ‘Buy a Bale’ campaign, the charity also provides financial
assistance, water and counselling to farmers in times of drought, flood or
fire. Other initiatives support its vision that farming and rural communities
are safeguarded to ensure their sustainability both during and after these
natural disasters. Visit www.ruralaid.org.au for further information on these
programs and other support for our rural communities.
Media:
0424203935 | media@admin.media.ruralaid.org.au
Spokesperson: Rural Aid CEO John Warlters | 0409 618 641
Follow Rural Aid for updates on:
Rural
Aid – FB: @ruralaidaustralia | IG: @ruralaid |IN: Rural Aid Ltd | TW: @ruralaidaust
Buy
A Bale – FB: @buyabaleofhay | IG: @buyabale | TW: @buyabale
