See Change, the group campaigning against stigma associated with mental illness, has conducted a survey of 977 people on their attitudes to mental health problems.

While 38% of respondents said they would conceal a mental health difficulty from family, friends or colleagues, this was the case for 45% of farmers. Some 19% of farmers also said they would delay seeking treatment for a mental health problem for fear of letting others know about it, compared with 14% in the general population.

Just under half of farmers were willing to live with someone with a mental health difficulty, compared to the national average of 55%. However, farmers were more open to interacting with people suffering from mental health problems in other ways: 73% said they would be willing to work with them, 81% to have them as neighbours and 81% to continue a friendship with someone who developed a mental health problem – all higher numbers than the general population.

People still feel they need to conceal that they are going through a tough time

“We are seeing signs that there is a lot of compassion among the farming and rural community in Ireland for people with mental health difficulties, but people still feel they need to conceal that they are going through a tough time”, says See Change chief executive John Saunders.

The survey was conducted by Kantar Millward Brown and funded by the HSE. See Change acknowledged that the sample of farmers in the survey was a small group of 51 people.

See Change is one of the organisations behind the Green Ribbon campaign to open conversations on mental health.

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