Mental health: one woman’s mission to raise awareness

Her time in the military taught her the importance of teamwork. Now, this farmer is working to supporting women in the bush.

Having been a working member of the military for more than a decade, Western Australia’s Sarah Stanaitis knows well the importance of looking out for your fellow comrades-in-arms and checking in on one another.

Now she’s turning her attention to her fellow farmers, and is working to promote women’s mental health and connectivity in the regions.

Enlisting in the military fresh out of high school, Sarah spent 11 years travelling the world and Australia before returning home and reuniting with her high school sweetheart, Ben Hayes.

Now running a mixed dairy and beef enterprise at Cookernup, she is also mother to two-year-old Bodhi, with another child on the way.

Balancing the load of running a farm, raising children, and being a partner left Sarah seeking support and acknowledgment of her own.

She found regional events aimed at on-farm networking were lacking awareness of the load on many rural women.

“Every time I attended these events … even when I attended the female-focused events, it was about how can we support our husbands, how can we look after their mental health,” Sarah said.

“I wanted to go to something that was asking, ‘how are you going?’. And targeting taking care of yourself.”

Western Australia's Sarah Stanaitis, a beef and dairy farmer, ex-military, and mother. Picture: Supplied

Sarah is now about to host a Rural Women’s Day event in Brunswick, WA on October 15, which she hoped would be time for regional women to relax, connect, take their mind off the farm, and learn the value of taking time for themselves within the context of farming.

“You can’t just constantly fill your kids’ cup, and your husband’s cup,” Sarah said.

“Eventually, you need to start focusing and putting something in your cup.”

The mental load on women – particularly regional women on farms – is a particular passion of Sarah’s.

“I have been through my own mental health battles, both on the farm, and through my time in the military,” she said.

While the stigma surrounding male mental health has been a focus in recent years, Sarah said more conversation was needed to highlight the role of women as nurturers, carers, and fellow farmers while also tackling their own mental health loads.

“Where we’re starting to kind of lag is in women’s support, which is why the event we’re putting together is about boosting that a little bit, letting women know it’s OK to take a few hours for yourself,” Sarah said.