An association for women in farming is calling for more investment in mental health for those living in isolated communities.
Rural Women New Zealand president Heather Sorensen told RNZ's Nine to Noon programme today that there have been a lot of initiatives to help farm men with their mental health, but far less for women.
Sorensen said struggles with mental health and wellbeing had always affected the community, but the problem had grown.
"There are things going on, loss of services in the rural sector is a real concern. For those with school-aged children, there's real concerns around the country over school buses and the review being done - loss of services, changes in services - just adding more and more stress onto people," she said.
"Everybody lives a busy life, everybody knows that, but for rural people they're so connected because they're living, breathing, eating, sleeping their lives in their rural community and the lack of ability to be able to access services is a real concern.
"We don't always have good upkeep on our roads, the transport system isn't there, you can't hop on a bus, there's no public support for that.
"So rural people have always been very resilient and done some great things around the country and now there's more and more expectation on them to have to be doing that as well, but they really need access, easier access to specialist services."
Rural Women New Zealand has made a submission on the Draft Mental Health and Wellbeing Strategy from 2026 to 2036.
Sorensen said it hoped to work in partnership with the Ministry of Health.
"You can't just throw money at it."
She believed services should be closer to the people that needed them.
"The services are too far away, so we need to look at potential health hubs that are covering physical health as well as mental health."
Sorensen added that some GPs also needed more training to support rural women with their mental health.
"We would love to see more support for those who are currently offering health services to be able to get a little bit more back-up and expertise in those specialist areas."
Rural Women New Zealand is also piloting a programme, called ConnectHER, to help families to find support.
"There are crisis teams to support people but they don't actually travel out into the isolated areas in the rural community so we're reliant on the members of that community, the friends, the neighbours to support and help.
"You know that checking-in factor, we've got to really step that up to make sure that works well."
This story was first published on rnz.co.nz |  |
