The College of Counselling Studies NENW Inc is a not for profit organisation which has trained country people for the past 30 years so they are able to provide quality assistance in their own communities in difficult times.
The college exists to train counsellors for rural work in mental health and has been doing so for 30 years with over 500 graduates to date. Many graduates are employed in local welfare services and counselling centres throughout
regional NSW and interstate.
Within the last couple of months alone we have seen three farmers in this area commit suicide as a direct result of the drought.
For farmers in drought it’s not just about not having enough to feed the animals. It’s about caring for your family, feeling that you should be able to provide for them financially.
It’s about trying to maintain the family farm that might have been in the family for generations. It’s about feeling like you have failed, that you don’t know what else to do next. When the bank comes knocking on the door it’s about losing
your home, your job and your way of life all in one go. Along with this so often goes the breakdown of marriage, of mental health and significant emotional damage to the children involved. The current drought in this region follows closely on an 8-10
year dry period.
Understandably the impact on the community itself is huge.
One of the key difficulties is that farming families often work alone, they are geographically isolated. They don’t have the same kind of support around them, that an office worker for example may have. This isolation helps to further increase the
feelings of helplessness and despair that we have seen claim the lives of some of those around us.
As a rural counsellor training College we train local people who have significant expertise at working with individuals in crisis, we are able to offer support and personal skills training to groups in small rural centers.
These groups help to bring people together, to talk about the issues, to realize that they are not alone, that there is some help available. If they do lose their farm they don’t also have to lose their mental health and their marriage as well. They can go
onto live a happy life again. Sometimes courses such as ‘Coping with Stress’ can be the difference between experiencing severe depression and reaching out for some assistance or being overcome by suicidal thoughts.
You might be thinking that now we have had some rain the worst is over, but for those who have lost their whole herds due to lack of food, or whose ground is too dry still to get their winter crop in or those behind with bank payments,
things have not got better and will slowly continue to worsen.
So we urge you on behalf of our community to show your support for those who really need it, our farmers. Please help us to help them.