He has been in the position for two weeks.
''It's quite a challenging role.''
The trust's purpose is to assist rural people through adverse events such as economic, animal and environmental crises.
He has not had any tricky case files to handle yet, more getting used to an administration system.
The role was about offering an ear and being able to give people advice, he said.
''I'm making myself available. It's all good common-sense stuff.''
His own background of having to deal with banks and keeping the wolf from the door during times of drought gives him an insight into the battles farmers and other members of the rural sector have to face.
In the 1980s, he and his family were deer farming in the Waianakarua area when they were struck by drought and high interest rates.
''We were just trying to survive. I had a wife and three little kids ... 'if the bank sells me I have no equity - I have no money to relocate'.
''It's a horrible feeling and it never goes away. We had no support in those days and that's why the rural trust was born out of those times.''
After he and his wife gained enough equity they left farming to move to Omarama, where they started a cafe and ran it for 24 years.
''It was such a challenge to do that. I can remember all the feelings of self-doubt. I can remember walking into that door 24 years ago and thinking, 'what the hell am I doing?'''
He carried no counselling qualifications as such, but what made him suitable for the role, he felt, was his life experiences.
''Because of what I've been through. I can remember those feelings.
''If I can help somebody with those feelings I'd feel quite good about it.
He also thought the role might be easier to administer given it was becoming OK for people to seek help and talk about mental health issues.
Role models such as former All Black Sir John Kirwan helped people come forward, Mr Purvis believed.
He described farmers as ''incredibly hard workers''.
''They're an end-of-line producer. They're probably the only industry workers that
buy everything retail and sell
it wholesale.
''They're subject to the vagaries of the boom and bust.''
