News
Here you will find news and updates about events and other relevant items that you might find useful in your role as an accidental counsellor. These might be new resources, or sources of help and support, that you can refer farmers to, or that might be useful for you personally as an accidental counsellor.
Keep an eye on this page for news and updates!
Farming women’s health and well-being focus of new research
A major new study will help to come up with new solutions for improving the health and wellbeing of women living and working in agriculture.
The research, by the University of Exeter’s Centre for Rural Policy Research and The Farming Community Network, will provide crucial insights into farming and gender-specific stressors that can affect women in agriculture, as well as barriers to accessing relevant support.
Previous studies show a significant number of women in UK agriculture suffer from poor mental health – though the reasons underlying this are poorly understood
Women in UK agriculture have rarely been the focus of health-related research, but are likely to face a range of both gender and farming-specific challenges.
The study, titled ‘Understanding health and wellbeing among farm women: a life-course approach’, which is funded by the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC), started in January 2025 and is led by Dr Rebecca Wheeler from the CRPR.
It will include surveys and detailed interviews to provide insights into the farming and gender-specific stressors that can affect women in agriculture - and the impacts on both their physical and mental health and wellbeing.
It will also explore the ways in which women experience and understand their health through, and in relation to, their bodies - with a focus on how this may change across the life-course, during periods of high stress or trauma, and in relation to their reproductive lives.
Dr Rebecca Wheeler, Project Lead and Senior Research Fellow at the CRPR, said: “Women play vital roles in running and supporting farm businesses and households, but the implications (both good and bad) of farming life for their physical and mental health has not always been given the attention it deserves. This research will change that by listening to women’s own experiences of health throughout their lives, shining a light on gender-specific issues and exploring ways of supporting and maintaining better wellbeing in the future. We are thrilled to be working with FCN on this project, which addresses such an important topic.”
Professor Matt Lobley, Project Co-Lead and Co-director of the CRPR, said: “This research builds on the CRPR’s long-standing work to understand and support the health and wellbeing of our farming communities and reflects our commitment to working with non-academic partners to bring about positive change in society.”
Alex Phillimore, Head of Communications and Development at The Farming Community Network, said: “This research will provide important insights into the unique challenges and stressors women in agriculture may face at different stages in their lives. The learnings from this project will help to inform the work of FCN, offering the charity deeper insights into the challenges women in farming can face and how their health and wellbeing needs can best be met through tailored support.”
Linda Jones, National Manager (Wales) at The Farming Community Network, said: “Farm women’s voices are rarely heard and in general society does not understand the unique challenges they face having to be often an off-farm earner, main care-giver, farm secretary, as well as active participants in actual farming events such as at lambing time. This research will provide us with much needed evidence to start addressing their wellbeing needs.”
An advisory board consisting of industry representatives, including mental health organisations, will provide input, guidance and feedback throughout the project.
Keep an eye out for opportunities to get involved in the research over the coming months by following FCN and the CRPR on their websites and LinkedIn. You can also contact Dr Becca Wheeler for further information via email: r.wheeler3@exeter.ac.uk
Now available: Accidental Counsellors Project Report
In the summer of 2023, we embarked on the ‘accidental counsellors’ project with funding from the University of Exeter’s Open Innovation Platform. Our motivation for the project stemmed from the recognition that although farm professionals (e.g. vets, accountants, business advisors) regularly go above and beyond to support their clients with health and well-being, there is very little guidance or support out there for them.
As a first step, we spoke to a range of farm professionals to understand what it is like to support farmers, how it impacts their own well-being, and what kind of support would be useful for them. These conversations helped us to curate a collection of resources across four thematic areas: health and wellbeing, tricky conversations, support in a crisis, and training and events, which are now available on the Accidental Counsellors Resource Hub.
We would like to keep the Resource Hub current and relevant and for this we need the help of our community of accidental counsellors. If you know of a resource, be it a website, guidance, or training event, we would like to hear from you.
To learn more about the accidental counsellors project and our findings, you can download the full report here or click on the image.
Farmers’ Health Hubs Launching in Cornwall
Imagine If launches 1st Farming Health Hub session in Troon.
At the end of 2022 Imagine If Partnership took over the running of the Farming Health Hub (FHH) from Duchy Cornwall and after much work and planning in the background, including working in collaboration with University of Exeter to publish a report exploring, Ageing Farmers Health and Access to Healthcare in the Wake of Digital Service Provision, they are now ready to start running Health Hubs in the community, with the first FHH launching on the 12th of Feb 2024.
Under the management of Imagine If the FHH will build upon the recommendations within the report and work with organisations such as Mole Valley Farmers, Public Health and health partners, employers and rural communities to provide place-based advice, support, and guidance to farming communities in local venues such as livestock markets and pop- up venues rather than farmers and their families having to visit more formal environments.
Imagine If have chosen Troon Village Hall as their first location for a FHH. With so much activity around the company’s new Troon Health and Wellbeing Hub, as well as Troon’s central location in the county, it seemed like the ideal place to begin building a network of Farming Health Hubs across the county, which Imagine If hope will eventually cover a much wider range of locations, farmers and trying to reach the farming community across the whole of Cornwall.
The first FHH drop in is in Troon on the 12th of Feb from 6.30pm – 8.30pm, to capture farming families who are busy during the day. It will be an informal session where we welcome the farming community to join us to share their ideas and thoughts about what they want to see happen at the Health Hub and how these Hubs can best support them as a community.
Imagine If would love to see as many people from the farming community there as possible, so they can get a sense of what farmers want to see happen in their communities and what support is needed.
“Vicky Taylor, The Coordinator of Imagine If’s Health and Well-being Hub said:
“Our network of Cornish projects is growing fast and the way we deliver our services aligns well with the needs of the farming community. We want to see more health support and provision happen across Cornwall, not just in our hubs but for the farming community too. As an organisation, we also work alongside many key partners in the county to make sure our provision is well used, well connected and can maximise our reach and thus increase our positive impact on communities across the whole county.”
For more information about The Farming Health Hub please contact Vicky Taylor at vicky.taylor@imagineif.net or Nikki Kelly at nikki.kelly@imagineif.net.
