After the floods, farmers mired in mental health turmoil fear ‘what’s next?’

A national survey of farmers has shown a staggering rise in mental health concerns since widespread flooding in rural and regional areas in 2022.

Dairy farmer Paul Weir says the floods around Lismore in 2022 left many farmers anxious about future weather events.

When the floodwater finally ­receded from Paul Weir’s dairy farm near Lismore a year ago, it left behind more than mud and ruin.

Behind the stoic fronts of the region’s farmers were the mental health impacts wrought by the destruction, and apprehension about what the weather would do next.

“Since the floods a lot of farmers have become anxious when you look at the forecast and they talk about big dollops of rain,” Mr Weir said. “Now the long-term forecast is to go back to dry, I’ve got no doubt the farmers severely ­affected by the drought will be affected by the forecast.”

Since the floods Mr Weir has noticed the mental health impacts among some of his peers, many of whom work in isolation and consider asking for help “taboo”.

“It’s certainly been evident not only among dairy farmers but around our community here in Lismore in the past year,” he said.

“I’ve been very fortunate that through this whole time, over the last 12 months, that I have actually had people just touch base to see how I’m going and how everything is going. But we can always do better, there’s always people who fall through the cracks.”

Anecdotal evidence is backed by a new report from Northern NSW dairy company Norco and the National Farmers Federation that highlights the unspoken burden shouldered by farmers.

A survey of 1338 farmers ­nationwide found a third had experienced a decline in their mental health in the past few years.

Of those surveyed, 45 per cent said they felt depressed, 64 per cent said they had suffered anxiety and 45 per cent said they had thoughts of self-harm or suicide.

One in three said they had ­attempted to hurt or kill themselves and half said they did not want to burden family and friends with their struggles.

The key cause of the mental health woes was natural disaster, including floods and drought.

“The research has solidified an issue that we were concerned ­existed; however, the breadth and depth of this issue is really quite profound,” Norco chief executive Michael Hampson said. “What we now need to do is consider how we, as an industry, and a country for that matter, can help address these challenges and work collectively to better support our highly valued and hardworking farmers well into the future.”

NFF vice-president David Jochinke said farmers were generally stoic and resilient, and kept their feelings to themselves.

“There needs to be a co-ordinated approach from state and federal governments to ensure support services are adequate,” he said.

For the past four years Ross Blanch, a dairy farmer from Rosewood in southeast Queensland, has donated his services as a counsellor to Lifeline’s farmer-to-farmer helpline.

The service experienced a 40 per cent increase in demand after widespread flooding in rural areas in eastern Australia last year.

Mr Blanch, a Lifeline counsellor for almost 30 years, receives between five and 10 calls a day from farmers throughout the country, mostly via personal referral.

“There’s a big reluctance in rural areas for farmers to seek help,” Mr Blanch explained. “At a dairy farmers supply meeting the other day, a woman said to me ‘I’m just so glad I heard you say that to reach out is a sign of strength’, because her husband had said to reach out was a sign of weakness.”

That attitude is something Mr Weir said needs to change.

“We often seem to think we’re the only ones going through these things but, realistically, there’s plenty of other people in the same boat and once you find out that is the case it actually takes a bit of the pressure off,” he said.