Back in mid-February, the Farm Safety Foundation – Yellow Wellies ran a week-long mental health campaign called #MindYourHead. As an ambassador for the charity, I was asked to speak on a short radio interview, an article in The Times publication and I was also a guest on BBC Breakfast.

Now, this is not the sort of opportunity a wee farm kid from West Lothian gets offered every day, so I jumped at the chance.

Speaking about the perception of mental health in the farming community and how stigma devastates lives – on live television – was an intimidating experience. Around 92% of UK farmers under the age of 40 comment that mental health is one of the biggest hidden problems facing farmers today. However, more importantly, as a young person in our industry my views and experience of mental health are different to that of previous generations.

I’m 21-years-old, my parents in their early-50s (sorry mum) and grandparents in their early 80s – three clear generations that each have their own set of defining characteristics.

Read more: Dealing with farming’s mental health issue

My conversations about mental health with these three generations are staggeringly different and many in the oldest generation think of mental health related issues as ‘taboo’, and will not entertain a conversation. Turning to the middle generation, they have also been raised on this mindset so some will still hold this belief, however, today’s young people do not think of mental health issues as taboo.

We’ve all heard the chat “oh but mental health in farming is taboo, no one wants to speak about it” – I believe this to be a very dangerous narrative to continue and will go on to cause harm in the future.

Us ‘younguns’ think of mental health differently because we’ve had an entirely different experience as a result of Covid-19, as an example. The pandemic has annihilated our developing years – a time when we’re supposed to leave home, go to college or to university, to travel to other countries in a bid to avoid adult responsibilities, meet interesting people, kiss boys we shouldn’t, work on different farms, go on holidays with friends, start a new job...and figure out what we want before settling down.

Instead, however, anxiety and depression have skyrocketed and continual lockdowns have accentuated isolation and loneliness in our young people. Some 53% of 17-23 year olds have experienced deterioration in mental health since before the pandemic and the picture isn’t much better for our older folks, with 34% of older people agree their anxiety is now worse than before the start of the pandemic.

With everything moving to an online platform, we think we’re connected but we’re not. We have a connection online but there is no social connection and many have never met colleagues and classmates. The experiences we signed up to are not what we’re receiving.

The question is...why do we treat mental and physical health so differently? I’ve two suggestions, two tangible and implementable suggestions – education and access.

In regards to education, have you ever received education on mental health? Do you know many reliable medical mental health facts? Likely not as very few of us have been taught. Education will help raise awareness and prevent mental health conditions go unnoticed, and we should teach others about different mental health conditions, causes, symptoms, cures and behaviour in others.

Prevention is more successful than cure and should be prioritised as such. Be it sheep disease on your farm, wearing masks to prevent catching Covid-19 or mental health in our population.

The other suggestion is access – the work of charities including the Farm Safety Foundation is excellent. They work tirelessly to support farmers and rural folks; a job requires toil and patience, but why do we have to rely on charity to provide baseline healthcare? Farmers could benefit from more-accessible, primary support before small issues become an all-consuming daily presence in a person’s life. As farmers, we all face the same issues so why do we all face them individually?