How Can I Help?

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How can I help?

Factual: Health & Wellbeing

BBC Radio Wales - How Can I Help?

Hear how hill farmer Alun Elidyr survived severe depression and lived to tell the tale.

In 2015, hill farmer and S4C Ffermio series presenter Alun Elidyr had a breakdown. This programme tells his story and seeks to find help for others in similar situations.

In 2015 Alun Elidyr, hill farmer and S4C ‘Ffermio’ series presenter, had a breakdown. 

Four months previously he'd found his mother dead at the bottom of the stairs having suffered a fatal fall. She was 91 and they had been farming Caecoch together for the past 19 years. It was a trigger for a severe bout of depression.

The breakdown was devastating for Alun. He couldn't sleep; had suicidal thoughts and spent his days feeding the animals in a robotic fashion, all the time thinking how useless he was. He'd always been outgoing, confident and capable but now he couldn't face going to the market in Dolgellau, he couldn't face chairing meetings or presenting talks, or any public event he had previously promised to fulfil. 

He sought and found help from various places but mostly from friends and neighbouring farmers and they'll talk about how they dealt with the situation and where they found support and advice, and what they found most useful. 

From a very bleak place Alun has become passionate and very proactive about mental health issues in the rural community and amongst farmers. 

Alun, in the programme, talks to psychologist Dr Beca Stillwell,  and GP Dr Ffion Williams in order to learn as much as possible about mental health, depression and its triggers. Dr Ffion Williams also outlines how GPs and trainees GPS now deal with a patient presenting with a mental health issue. 

In the the programme we hear from Senior Nurse Ann Thomas, Dolgellau, who has spent a lot of time helping the local farming community with mental health issues and set up a project targeting men's health in general and farmers in particular.  Emma Jenkins tells Alun about setting up the mental health charity -  DPJ Foundation - and whose work has now been so successful - going from working in Pembrokeshire and Ceredigion only to Mid and North Wales in a few short years.   She talks about the need to support the farming community and how they carry out that work with volunteers, counsellors and a huge fund raising operation.  Emma and Alun also discuss the adversarial nature of the relationship that can develop between farmers and their WG inspectors.  Alun then speaks to Lynne Neagle Deputy Minister for Mental Health and Wellbeing in order to see if anything can be done to improve the relationship between farmers and WG officials.

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