Survey from Curtin University's Micaela Riethmuller widens mental health responses

In some instances such unpredictability can hit the hip-pocket hard, placing unwanted pressure on finances and causing heightened anxiety.

For the past 12 months, Curtin University's Micaela Riethmuller has been researching the mental health and wellbeing of WA farmers.

Now, she is asking men and women, who are working in the State's agriculture sector, to take part in her final online survey.

The survey is part of Ms Riethmuller's longitudinal WAFarmers Mental Health and Wellbeing study, which has been conducted as part of her psychology PhD, under the supervision of Peta Dzidic, Elizabeth Newnham and Peter McEvoy.

Research seeks to provide a deeper understanding of the risk and protective factors for farmers' mental health, the barriers and enablers to accessing mental health services in WA and how these factors change over time.

Ms Riethmuller said the final survey would help her identify any changes in results over time.

"Farming can change season-to-season, so it is important we conduct the survey over consecutive years, as opposed to one," Ms Riethmuller said.

"From the first survey, we found the main risk factor for anxiety is financial stress and the main coping strategy associated with anxiety was self-distraction.

"Seeking support and help earlier is likely to result in better mental health outcomes, rather than distraction, which may only provide temporary relief."

MORE STORIES:

Ms Riethmuller added, a social network or support base was one way people could potentially reduce their need to rely on self distraction.

However, this can be difficult for farmers who live remotely, particularly when there are often hundreds of kilometres between neighbouring properties.

As a result of this, her study found that one in five farmers were at risk of social isolation.

The first survey found distance also created a barrier when it came to help seeking, but that farmers are proactive in creating and using informal and community-led services.

Social media proved popular in keeping farmers engaged, as did events including #6BS and crop tours where people could come together, have a chat and see how others were going in their day-to-day life.

"Farming is a unique industry in that they are sharing their successes and how they get the best out of things, but then potentially not sharing so much on the personal side of things," Ms Riethmuller said.

"We are encouraging people to share not just the business side of things, but also how they are going with their wellbeing."

Once all responses have been received, survey responses across all timepoints will be analysed.

Results from the study are set to be shared with farming communities, as well as mental health services in WA to help increase and provide support and accessibility for farmers.

The last and final survey has been released and all farmers, who have participated previously or not, as well as their partners/spouses and adult children are urged to complete the survey to help researchers get a better understanding of the challenges facing the agricultural sector, and how to overcome them.

The survey takes around 15-20 minutes to complete at https://tinyurl.com/3kvbmnhh