MP backs farming mental health campaign

Cumbrian MP Tim Farron has attended a Parliamentary event to promote the Farm Safety Foundation's seventh annual Mind Your Head 2024 campaign.

The foundation are working to highlight the significant mental health risks associated with farm work, and are calling for investment in and improvement of education and services relating to mental health.

The campaign lasts all week (12th-16th February), bringing together more than 300 farming organisations, public bodies and charities from the breadth of the UK to help break the stigma attached to mental ill health.

A recent study by leading rural charity the Farm Safety Foundation (Yellow Wellies) has revealed that poor mental health among farmers and agricultural workers is of growing concern. In a sample of 450 farmers under the age of 40, respondents almost universally (95%) agreed that poor mental health is the biggest hidden problem facing the industry today.

Farming has the poorest safety record of any occupation in the UK and stress is often a key factor in many of the incidents, injuries and illnesses which take place on British farms. The Farm Safety Foundation wants to create a culture in farming that promotes positive mental health, prevents people from experiencing mental ill health and helps them better manage mental health problems.

Tim said: “Many farmers live and work on their own. They often live in isolated parts of the country, working long, anti-social hours, with very little contact with other people.

“It is critically important that farmers who are struggling, do not suffer in silence. Instead they need to know that support is out there and how they can access it. That’s why campaigns like this are so important.”