Several years ago while working as a counsellor in Central Queensland I was asked to provide counselling to farmers who were going through hardship as a result of drought.
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There wasn’t anything that could have prepared me for the grief, anguish and sad state of mental health of those I talked with were in.
Here we are yet again coming full circle or should I say a circle of perpetuation.
While our politicians debate about water rights, loan packages or subsidies they fail to see or possibly understand that as each day goes by those farmers doing it tough are slipping further into a mental health abyss.
How much rhetoric can our communities endure as we continue to see increasing incidents of suicide or self- harm in the farming sector in those drought stricken areas of the continent.
Chair of the NSW Farmers Hartley Branch Rachel Nicoll said, “The emotional effects on farmers are huge, seeing their stock suffer and the land they are on suffer, it takes a toll on people”.
Politicians continue to talk a big numbers game, $600 million, what does that mean to the average person who makes a significant amount less?
What does it mean when a person’s mental health state is so fragmented?
When counselling to those farmers over a decade ago they were not interested in promises, paperwork or sympathy they wanted positive solutions for their futures.
There were no answers I could provide just coping strategies for the time I was with them, not enough.
An article published in the International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, The Mental Health Outcomes of Drought, 2015, states that in particular, there are significant implications of drought on mental health via pathways such as loss of livelihood and diminished social support with the US National Climate Assessment mentioning that there is concern that adverse health outcomes may become more prevalent.
Droughts pose a unique threat to a person’s mental health with their slow onset and extended exposure.
A 2007 survey of 8000 people living in rural and regional areas of Australia, around the time I was counselling to drought stricken farmers, was conducted when a substantial part of the Australian continent was experiencing severe drought. Sound familiar.
The paper written as a result of the survey, The Impact of Drought on Mental Health in Rural and Regional Australia, found that drought does have negative mental health impacts and that those who are most impacted upon are farmers.
Further, the paper noted farmers who reported that the drought had eliminated or reduced their farm’s productivity to the lowest point ever had significantly higher rates of mental health problems and lower mental health wellbeing.
Sadly, around 40 per cent of farmers who died by suicide had accessed some type of professional mental health service.
According to Australia.gov.au, Australia is the driest continent on the planet, this will come to no surprise to many of you.
But what will surprise you is – per National Coordinator of Fair Water Use, Ian Douglas – Australia is the world’s largest nett exporter of virtual water in crop, livestock and industrial products.
Meaning virtual water being consumed to create produce for export.
Our agricultural sector is responsible for the vast majority of the total volume of water exported from Australia in this way, shipping an average of 72,000 gigalitres of virtual water overseas every year.
Per Mr Douglas, “While few would question the important contribution made by most Australian farmers, it defies belief that a country continually struggling with unreliable rainfall and severe drought allows more virtual water to be lost than any other nation on the planet.”
There are solutions.
To start, with the support of billionaire mining magnets relief can be provided by constructing continental infrastructure by moving water from significant rainfalls in the top sections of the country to those drought stricken regions.
This is not a new concept but one that has been floated for many years often being disregarded by the same politicians who are still talking about our farmer’s mental health.
Will it cost money to construct, undeniably yes, but is that money more important than the loss of life and a person’s eroding mental health as we sit idly by year after drought stricken year with no real solutions to the real problem.
If you need help call Lifeline, 13 11 14.
Anthony Perrone is college counsellor at Trinity Anglican College. The views expressed are Dr Perrone's and not necessarily those of Trinity Anglican College. Got a question for the counsellor? Email: kate.benson@fairfaxmedia.com.au