SOPA welcomes new FarmStrong Initiative

As pressures build in the industry, a range of agricultural partners has come together to launch a survey to better understand these needs and concerns with a view to introducing a new farm wellbeing programme in 2022/23. The research follows on from the successful “drought, adversity and breaking new ground tour that took place in winter 2018 and saw over 2000 farmers attend one of fourteen events to hear New Zealand farmer Doug Avery, talk about his own challenges with mental health and wellbeing.

The survey, supported by Scotland's Rural College (SRUC), the National Rural Mental Health Forum (run by Support in Mind Scotland), RHASS and the Scottish Rural Network (Scottish Government), aims to provide insights to emulate Farmstrong, a successful wellbeing programme in New Zealand that helps farmers to “live well, to farm well”.

The initiative is designed by farmers for farmers, to provide the resources and proven tools they need to manage their own well being when faced with challenges that are often hard to predict, or control, from fluctuation commodity prices and the weather, to changing government legislation and market pressures.

The first key activity is to undertake research to gain insights into how the Farmstrong model could be applied in Scotland.

To take part in the survey and help shape the building of Farmstrong in Scotland, farmers and crofters are invited to complete the survey at www.dougaveryscotland.co.uk before the end of May 2022.

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