Rural mental health “poor cousin” of health industry

A mental health body for farmers has been granted 12 months of funding by the State Government. But top advocates say it’s not enough.

Funding to a national organisation for rural and farmer mental health has been extended for another 12 months following last week’s Victorian government budget.

But one industry leader has called for continued dedicated funding for farmer mental health, saying it was often treated as the “poor cousin” to other health issues in the community.

The National Centre for Farmer Health, based at Hamilton, had been waiting to see if its funding would be renewed beyond 2023 in the state budget.

It ended up receiving $900,000 for another year’s work — but NCFH director Alison Kennedy said longer-term funding was needed to make sustainable change in the prevention of mental health stress in regional communities.

“We’re really pleased to confirm we’ve received funding … ultimately, we would be looking for support in the longer term,” Dr Kennedy said.

Without earlier funding confirmation planning for future programs was difficult, Dr Kennedy said.

“It’s very challenging to plan large pieces of work in short, 12-month blocks. We’ve been working with the government to plan a longer-term approach for funding … that’s definitely something we’ll be pushing for, a long-term funding model, particularly when we’re focusing a lot on prevention.”

National Centre for Farmer Health director Alison Kennedy, right, pictured with Jaala Pulford. Picture: Chloe Smith

The State government announced $157 million to be funnelled towards 96 mental health beds across the state, along with $97.4 million invested in recruiting forensic mental health staff.

A further $776 million was allocated for critical bed-based services, and earlier support in community mental health services, along with the rollout of a Mental Health and Wellbeing Act.

Dr Kennedy said it was “disappointing” to see mental health treated as “a poor cousin” to other health funding.

“We know that mental health has such a massive bearing on physical health, and health more broadly … I guess the focus and the funding is not really mirroring the magnitude of the problems at hand, and the challenges.”

The National Farmer Wellbeing Report, published earlier this year, showed one in seven Australian farmers have attempted suicide or self-harm in the past five years, while almost a third say their mental health has declined in the past three years.