IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jijerp/v19y2022i19p12247-d926603.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Male Farmers’ Perspectives on Psychological Wellbeing Self-Management Strategies That Work for Them and How Barriers to Seeking Professional Mental Health Assistance Could Be Overcome

Author

Listed:
  • Dale D. Woolford

    (Department of Rural Health, Allied Health and Human Performance, University of South Australia, Adelaide, SA 5000, Australia
    Freemasons Centre for Male Health and Wellbeing, University of Adelaide, Adelaide, SA 5005, Australia)

  • Matthew F. Smout

    (UniSA Justice and Society, University of South Australia, Adelaide, SA 5072, Australia)

  • Deborah Turnbull

    (Freemasons Centre for Male Health and Wellbeing, University of Adelaide, Adelaide, SA 5005, Australia
    School of Psychology, University of Adelaide, Adelaide, SA 5005, Australia)

  • Kate M. Gunn

    (Department of Rural Health, Allied Health and Human Performance, University of South Australia, Adelaide, SA 5000, Australia
    Freemasons Centre for Male Health and Wellbeing, University of Adelaide, Adelaide, SA 5005, Australia)

Abstract

This research aimed to explore the self-management strategies that Australian male farmers use to improve or maintain their psychological wellbeing and their views on what would assist them to overcome barriers to seeking professional mental health assistance. Individual semi-structured telephone interviews were audio-recorded with consent. Qualitative data were analysed inductively using thematic analysis. Fifteen male farmers participated, who were an average of thirty-nine years of age (23–74 years) with twenty years of farming experience (5–57 years). Seven themes relating to self-management strategies were identified: (1) interacting with a supportive network; (2) involvement in groups and teams; (3) physical activity; (4) proactively educating themselves; (5) self-prioritising and deliberately maintaining work–life balance; (6) being grateful; and (7) focusing on the controllable aspects of farming. Five themes were identified that related to mitigating barriers to seeking mental health assistance: (1) actively welcoming mental health professionals into the community; (2) normalising help-seeking; (3) making seeking mental health assistance a priority; (4) offering services that are culturally appropriate and accessible for male farmers; and (5) tailoring mental health information delivery to farming populations. Australian male farmers already use strategies to maintain and improve their mental health that are culturally and contextually appropriate. These proactive strategies could form the basis of interventions aiming to further promote male farmers’ wellbeing. Barriers to seeking professional mental health assistance may be overcome by implementing solutions directly suggested by male farmers. Given the elevated risk of suicide in this group, investment in trialing promotion of these strategies is warranted.

Suggested Citation

  • Dale D. Woolford & Matthew F. Smout & Deborah Turnbull & Kate M. Gunn, 2022. "Male Farmers’ Perspectives on Psychological Wellbeing Self-Management Strategies That Work for Them and How Barriers to Seeking Professional Mental Health Assistance Could Be Overcome," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 19(19), pages 1-13, September.
  • Handle: RePEc:gam:jijerp:v:19:y:2022:i:19:p:12247-:d:926603
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/19/19/12247/pdf
    Download Restriction: no

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/19/19/12247/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Alison Kennedy & Jessie Adams & Jeremy Dwyer & Muhammad Aziz Rahman & Susan Brumby, 2020. "Suicide in Rural Australia: Are Farming-Related Suicides Different?," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 17(6), pages 1-13, March.
    2. Melissa J. Hull & Kate M. Gunn & Ashleigh E. Smith & Martin Jones & James Dollman, 2022. "“We’re Lucky to Have Doctors at All”; A Qualitative Exploration of Australian Farmers’ Barriers and Facilitators to Health-Related Help-Seeking," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 19(17), pages 1-16, September.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Matthew Champness & Leigh Vial & Carlos Ballester & John Hornbuckle, 2023. "Evaluating the Performance and Opportunity Cost of a Smart-Sensed Automated Irrigation System for Water-Saving Rice Cultivation in Temperate Australia," Agriculture, MDPI, vol. 13(4), pages 1-16, April.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Laura Grattidge & Ha Hoang & Jonathan Mond & David Lees & Denis Visentin & Stuart Auckland, 2023. "Exploring Community-Based Suicide Prevention in the Context of Rural Australia: A Qualitative Study," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 20(3), pages 1-18, February.
    2. Ivan C. Hanigan & Timothy B. Chaston, 2022. "Climate Change, Drought and Rural Suicide in New South Wales, Australia: Future Impact Scenario Projections to 2099," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 19(13), pages 1-12, June.
    3. Emelynne Gabrielly de Oliveira Santos & Paulo Roberto Queiroz & Aryelly Dayane da Silva Nunes & Kelly Graziani Giacchero Vedana & Isabelle Ribeiro Barbosa, 2021. "Factors Associated with Suicidal Behavior in Farmers: A Systematic Review," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 18(12), pages 1-15, June.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:gam:jijerp:v:19:y:2022:i:19:p:12247-:d:926603. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: MDPI Indexing Manager (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.mdpi.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.