A national suicide prevention service is calling for more people in rural communities, who are directly linked to drought-affected farmers, to take part in a new program in the new year.
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Following on from Lifeline’s recent ‘Drought Tool Kit talks’ across the central west, the not-for-profit organisation aim to hold more in-depth workshops during 2019 to create an ‘army of gatekeepers’.
The recent 2018 drought talks were held in Dubbo, Bathurst and Orange with over 100 rural bankers, agribusiness employees and agents in attendance.
The workshops were focused for those people, also known as ‘gatekeepers’, to give them the confidence and knowledge to notice when something wasn’t right with farmers and encourage them to get help.
Lifeline Central West rural business development and training manager, Aiden Keough said an in-depth ‘gatekeeper workshop’ was held in Bathurst a few weeks ago, with publicans, accountants and more in attendance.
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“We think we need an army of gatekeepers out there in the community, resourced and willing, and connected in the communities,” he said.
“We need to give them skills and confidence so that when they come across someone their community who they know isn’t going well, then they’ve got the confidence to reach out to them and connect them with help.
Mr Keough said their focus now and into the New Year will be gathering expressions of interest for people wanting to take part in this program.
“We know farmers are the first people to offer help, but the last people to ask for it, so we’re just saying to the communities if the farmers are not going to ask for it, we need to reach out to them and offer help,” he said.
While other natural disasters such as fire and floods were devastating to communities, what makes droughts so different is you never know when it will end, Mr Keough said.
“You don’t know if you’ve got the resources to cope,” he said.
“People are faced with very difficult decisions to make and drought has a lot of uncertainty associated with it, which we know uncertainty is one of the most challenging things for peoples well-being and mental health.”
Mr Keough said drought can also can have a lot of isolation associated with it.
“People are working very long hours, they're exhausted and often the first thing that goes from a family’s budget in hard times is the social outings,” he said.
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“We know isolation is one of the things that really causes people not to feel good. We as humans are designed to connect and share, talk and chat. And if you take that part away it can cause people to not feel good.”
To register in attending a workshops email reception@lifelinecentralwest.org.au or call 1300 798 258.