Saturday, March 30, 2024

Understanding ambiguous loss

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Farmers may be classed as an essential service, which allows them to go about their business during the covid-19 lockdowns, but they still have plenty of other worries.
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Farmers are in a unique position amongst business owners in that they must cope with more uncontrollable factors than most other businesses. Weather, local and global economy and product prices, changing government regulations, and now covid-19 has thrown another spanner into an already crowded works.

We are living in a time of constantly updating information. It now seems that dancing on a moving carpet is the new norm for everyone, especially so for farmers. 

Taranaki Rural Support coordinator Marcia Paurini believed that when farmers were categorised as an essential service business during the covid-19 lockdowns, it left no reason for them to be anxious.

Unlike urban dwellers, farmers’ income sources were still active. La Nina weather patterns meant healthy silage levels, production was and is still strong, the dairy payout is looking promising and meat exports are lifting.

Yet there is an underlying anxiety about the future and Paurini has found an appropriate term to explain it, “ambiguous loss”, a term coined by Dr Pauline Boss in 1970. 

Ambiguous loss differs from ordinary loss in that there is no evidential endpoint or certainty of when or if life will return to feeling safer, more definite, or a return to “normal”.

The Top-Six Inches created by Taranaki artist Paul Rangiwahia for the Rural Support Trust. It is hoped farmers will buy and hang it in their sheds to get people talking about mental health.

“The covid-19 pandemic is an ambiguous loss,” Paurini says.

“New Zealanders have experienced three significant lockdowns and the recent Papatoetoe outbreak has raised community contagion fears, which are not helped by hourly national media updates.”

“All of this has us on guard and self-isolating in some capacity. Discussion group numbers are down in some regions and event attendances have dropped away, possibly based on the fear of being in groups. 

“We don’t know how long it’s going to take for herd immunity to develop, so it’s of little surprise that we’re grieving and experiencing ambiguous loss.”

Ambiguous loss is the uncertainty and fear of the unknown and the future with no end date. It’s certainly not an unjustifiable fear. 

New legislation is an ambiguous loss. Complex compliance and likely very high costs associated with implementation of essential freshwater policies and achieving greenhouse gas (GHG) reduction targets are uncertain and unclear, which adds to the anxiety that many farmers are feeling.

Generally, things are going along fairly well for most farmers and Paurini feels that they should want to attend and participate in events. But she knows that’s not the case. 

“I do wonder what’s causing this, but think it’s the underlying anxiousness and fear of the future,” she says.

“I was told of a farmer who hadn’t been off the farm in four weeks. That really scares me. Isolation is one of the worst things for your mental health. You need to get out of your own head, and connect and have conversations with other people.”

A farm can be a semi-isolated location, which can exacerbate the problem and cause it to go unnoticed. Farmers know which of their ilk are isolating because they usually haven’t seen them for quite some time.

“There’s often a cone of silence surrounding mental health issues. We recently ran a farm finance seminar with Baker Tilly Staples Rodway and only seven farmers turned up. They were the ones who had their finances in order. The ones that didn’t know their numbers didn’t attend,” she says.

“I’ve been to discussion groups where participants have said ‘it would be great if Farmer X was here, we haven’t seen him for a while’. They need to go and pick up that farmer because they’re less likely to say no when asked to attend face-to-face.”

Paurini also feels that it does not bode well for the industry if farmers continue to operate in this long held “cone of silence”. That silence contributes to continuing and condoning the bad behaviour, which often masks an earlier traumatic incident in someone’s life.

Bad behaviour often stems back to incidents such as being badly bullied at school, parental divorce, sexual violation when young, or fatal accidents and loss. Marcia has recognised that there is always a reason for a person to exhibit unhealthy behaviour.

“There is the underlying uncertainty of whether farmers are going to be hit again. Is the payout going to stay high or drop? What’s the weather going to do? This is all part of the grief process and I’m seeing that anxiety play out in the form of bullying and anger,” she says.

“Calls to the 14 Rural Support Trust’s 0800 number mostly relate to young people. Usually it’s farm workers or employees losing their confidence and questioning their ability. This results in increased levels of anxiety and them becoming scared to turn up for work.”

Federated Farmers are worried about the loss of good people from the industry and Paurini is seeing ever increasing numbers of passionate lovers of the land and animals exit the industry.

New unemployment data for the December quarter (down to 4.9%) surprised everyone. Yet Taranaki experienced the largest month-on-month increase in job ads for December (up 14%). 

Currently, more than 45 farm staff vacancies are advertised in the Taranaki dairy sector. A net 35.8% of Farmers Confidence Survey respondents reported that it has been more difficult to recruit skilled and motivated staff, an increase from July.

The large pool of labour looking for cross-sector opportunities isn’t at expected levels and with the six-month December-issued migrant visa extensions expiring just prior to the next dairying season, access to quality labour will be at a premium.

Paurini usually sees the results of farmer behaviour change affecting farm workers in the 20-year old to mid-40’s age bracket. 

The typical scenario she encounters is of a farm owner continually telling their worker that they aren’t doing their job correctly. Often the worker is in their second or third season on the farm and knows the ropes and how the jobs must be done.

“Those workers go home and ruminate on the situation until their self-confidence begins to wane and they begin doubting their abilities. Yet the farmer keeps chipping away at them. All the worker wants is a simple ‘thank you’,” she says.

“The worker’s loss of confidence increases until they become anxious and too scared to get up in the morning and get out onto the farm, because they know they are going to get another strip torn off them. They then ring us and say that they aren’t doing well.”

Often, the end result is a medical certificate for time off work, and sometimes the need for prescription anxiety and depression medication, and often the worker isn’t keen to go back to that job. Unless the trust is able to change that farmer’s communication style the farmer and maybe the industry, will likely lose a competent worker.

“What I’m saying is that there’s something wrong with the farmer. There must be some underlying reason for someone to be so angry. If a staff member is not working how you want, walk beside them. Don’t abuse them,” she says.

The Rural Support Trusts have a strong focus on mental health and try to nip stress in the bud with active help from all GP clinics and DHBs. The percentage of mental health percentage of the Taranaki Rural Support Trust’s total inquiries (around 40%) has stayed static since 2018.

Nationally, the construction industry represents 8% of the total suicides, with 7% for forestry and 6% for rural. Those stats tell Paurini that the farming sector is not alone in having to deal with serious mental health issues.

Greater numbers of farmers are putting their hands up and publicising the stories of how they deal with their own mental health issues, which in turn “gives permission” for others to reach out too.

“Maybe it’s not anger, but frustration? Only those who are close will recognise how ambiguous loss is playing out in their husbands, wives, partners, bosses and colleagues,” she says.

“What are they sensing or seeing that is different? Has there been a change in communication or management style? Has there been an increase in anger? A loss of appetite? Less sleep than normal leading to higher irritability? I encourage anyone to seek support for family and colleagues who are displaying any changes. The bottom line is to give the Rural Support Trust a call to help out with any stressful farm situations.”

Suffering from depression or stress, or know someone who is? Where to get help:

RURAL SUPPORT TRUST: 0800 RURAL HELP

DEPRESSION HELPLINE: 0800 111 757

LIFELINE: 0800 543 354

NEED TO TALK? Call or text 1737

SAMARITANS: 0800 726 666

YOUTHLINE: 0800 376 633 or text 234

 

 

Artist Paul Rangiwahia has teamed up with the Rural Support Trust to produce a rural artwork called The Top-Six Inches.

Rangiwahia hails from Hawera where he saw first-hand the stresses that farming has put on many of his farming mates and the stigma that still surrounds those issues.

He had previously completed two artworks that sit outside the New Plymouth Puke Ariki Library – Mental Warrant of Fitness and the I Am So Awesome, a project for school children. Both are based on his own mental health journey.

Taranaki Rural Support Trust asked Rangiwahia if he would complete an artwork for the rural sector. The aim is to use the artwork to spark conversations and to be a national fundraising initiative for the Rural Support Trusts.

The original canvas recently sold for $9000 at a sheep and beef auction/dinner/debate, where 320 attendees raised $60,000 for the trust. 

“We’re encouraging people to put one in their shed, office or home to initiate a conversation. That conversation may be as simple as (saying) ‘man, I feel like that today’ or ‘what number are you today?’” Paurini says. 

“There are some farming homes where mental health is still a stigma. And if you have it you’re too scared to talk about it, this is a light-hearted way to create a conversation. I want people to reach out, because we need good people in the industry. Don’t forget to thank staff and colleagues for the good effort they put in and never be afraid to give us a call.”

The Top-Six Inches is available from the Rural Support Trust and all profits from each print will go towards the Rural Support Trusts. Prints can be ordered from the trust website at http://www.rural-support.org.nz/

Sidebar 2

In May, Waverley farming brother and sister Natalie Tua and rugby referee Paul Williams will run four 90-minute workshops called The E Word.

The siblings founded The Strengths Shed and want to give back to farmers. The workshop looks at the importance of seeing our emotions as “data” and exploring our emotional vocabulary and acknowledging the levels of intensity within emotions.

Both events will develop resilience to uncertainty and ambiguous loss for attendees, and to keep healthy conversations alive regarding emotions and mental wellness. Paurini’s hope is to keep good, young people in farming. 

“If you label emotions as data you can then do something with them because you’ve given them a label,” Paurini says.

“Where are those emotions coming from, what are they really called, and what are you really feeling? Unless you know the right words you might not know what to do with it and it just stays as anger. It might be frustration or fear. What is making you angry?”

Developing resilience within rural communities is one of the Taranaki Rural Support Trust’s focuses for the 2021–24 seasons.

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