“Farmers work in isolation so much that often we blame ourselves if something goes wrong,” says Joe Leonard, a dairy farmer who spoke at Mental Health Ireland’s 50th anniversary conference in Dún Laoghaire this month. Specifically he spoke about the experience of his herd of cattle being slaughtered in 2002 when one animal was found with BSE (otherwise known as mad cow disease).

“I did get a financial remuneration for the loss, but the animals are part of your fabric and losing them was a trauma for me.”

Leonard spoke about the value he gained from regularly meeting up with 15 other farmers and talking about the stresses and strains of farm life.

“We realised that we worked 65-70 hours a week throughout the year – even in the times when we didn’t need to be so busy,” says Leonard. The farmers came to recognise their long working hours were impacting on their personal lives, their sleep and their overall health.

“We looked at ways of bringing in seasonal workers and getting off the farm when we were less busy,” says Leonard. Now, he says, “mental health issues aren’t spoken about in rural Ireland as much as physical issues, but if you catch them early enough, they won’t become more severe mental illness.”

Leonard’s experience is a snapshot of a man’s experience of dealing with mental stress through group support.

Seminar

“Men are more likely to come to services via the criminal justice system, while women will seek help with mental health problems in primary care,” said Dr Karen Newbigging, who works on gender equality and women’s mental health in England.

In Ireland, depression and anxiety are three times more prevalent in women than men. Men are three times more likely to die by suicide than women, yet more women attempt suicide and self harm. Women are more likely to talk one to one to validate their experiences, while men often prefer activity-focused groups like Men’s Sheds.

Jacqueline Healy from the NWCI says that we need to re-ignite conversations of gender sensitive care in Ireland as part of the revision of A Vision for Change, the 2006 mental health policy document.