Fires, drought put mental health under the microscope

He's helped carry NSW Farmers through thick and thin since 2015 and has been there when members turned to him for support. He's signed off as president now, but Derek Schoen still wants to contribute, taking on one of his most important roles, as the farming voice on the board of leading mental health service provider Beyond Blue.

It's quite a new direction from what he's been doing since he left. His most recent position was overseeing the integrity of NSW freight subsidies in the drought. He said it was important that he pre-planned his departure from Farmers' executive, and had new goals in mind.

"They (Beyond Blue) approached me and asked me if i'd be interested and I said 'yes'. They wanted someone with hands on experience in farming and they wanted me to bring that experience to the role," Schoen says.

"There is a major problem out there and in many instances it's not being addressed.

"I have faced some confronting times with one or two members. It was very evident they were under enormous stress leading to irrational behaviour. In personal meetings it is very confronting especially say with a 70-year-old crying on my shoulder. And it was hard for me in that position as president you feel obligated to maintain some distance, you find someone you know in a very difficult place, making things larger than they should be, feeling they've let the side down, and if they are selling up, letting their heritage go. And now drought is just exacerbating the whole situation. They find they can no longer make rational decisions. Looking after themselves was a secondary issue."

Putting farmers' mental health first is now a priority Schoen wants to see more of. He feels many people leave it too late to seek help if they are in distress. Getting to grips with problems early on is critical.

Schoen understood the trauma some farmers would be going through with the fires. It was also a time when farmers, who are generally self-reliant, would be confronted by offers of help, and though grateful, would also need to deal with that situation as well.

"I think it's important that after the fires that people recognise if they are not coping, and also that neighbours see if someone else is not coping, or might have anxiety. Often when the adrenalin wears off, that's when these things can surface.

"I think also people have to be sensitive to farmers' circumstances, they are very raw after something like this, and it doesn't take much to aggravate that. How do you react to an act of generosity without feeling greedy? It can be a difficult thing to work through."

Orry Berry is the Mid-north coast co-ordinator for the Rural Adversity Mental Health Program (RAMHP) attending evacuation centres over a large area, helping people find counselling assistance after the fires.

It's been a long and exhausting crisis. The fire crisis has been running since early September when Berry was called to an evacuation centre at Dorrigo. "It was unbelievable, almost 11 degrees in Dorrigo and a fire, what some might say, was a hellfire, just 40km down the road. There was complete shock and heightened anxiety from the people who came in," he says.

In the months since he has seen many people including farmers file into evacuation centres, not knowing if their home or their stock have survived or when they can return home. He says everyone reacts differently to the fire crisis they've been in. What has shone through for him, is the generosity and compassion he has witnessed in the centres.

"I have seen many touching things, but one really stuck with me was a couple from Sydney who drove four hours to deliver some household items to the fire victims and then turned around and drove back home. Sometimes these crises bring out the best in people."

(The Land heard of a community effort at Termeil in the Currawon fires on the South Coast where a convoy of horse floats turned up to save some 25 Welsh ponies. Of course, over-riding all this is the massive effort by Rural Fire Service firefighting volunteers battling nearly 100 fires as of December across the state.)

Many have lost stock, and those that still have stock have lost all their feed. "Fire is a catastrophic event on farms. These fires have been going on for a long time and people are on edge not knowing what they're going to do next." For those people with broken sleep patterns and who find themselves in a constant hyper-vigilant state, he says it's important to talk to somebody. "It's important to seek help sooner rather than later, it lessens the recovery period."

"For those coming out of the trauma of fires, it's good to set small goals at first, and then make them bigger as you go along and are feeling better." The fire crisis has been overwhelming but Berry believes help has got to those people most in need. For some it means starting again, others have to stay in temporary accommodation. The sense it is not over, permeates everything.

If you or someone you know is experiencing emotional distress, please call Lifeline on 13 11 14.