VIDEO: #FarmingCAN: Dairy farmer sets up mental health account and the community gets behind it: 'I think farmers also do not feel valued by the public'

If there is one thing you can count on in farming it is the support of your fellow farmers.

Emily Ashworth

26 January 2023 • 3 min read

If there is one thing you can count on in farming it is the support of your fellow farmers.

And a new social media account set up by dairy farmer Holly Atkinson proves this.

As a busy mum of two, Holly set up Face Your Thoughts to bring the rural community together and raise awareness of mental and physical health in the farming and veterinary world.

The 37-year-old helps to run a 600-head dairy enterprise near Plymouth, but before having her two children she was a practicing vet, so knows the pressures of the industry all too well.

And being from a non-farming background, social media has helped her interact with other farmers, and not just in the local community, but all over the world.

She hopes Face Your Thoughts can do just that: connect, support and encourage.

Holly said: I have always been aware of mental health in both agriculture and the veterinary world.

But I have become more interested and, in 2021, I was invited to the Big Farming Survey results launch by Royal Agricultural Benevolent Institution [RABI]. It highlighted a lot of the problems in the industry. Following this, I wanted to start Face Your Thoughts even if it helps one person.

Holly went on to become a mental health first aider following more training though RABI, and she is also an ambassador for well-loved charity Yellow Wellies.

But with the unique factors facing the sector, she hopes that by using other farmers it will spread the word and make it feel personal.

Her latest video using people from the rural community sees farmers from across the country stating ways to help your mental health from taking a break to getting a good nights sleep.

Holly said: With social media, you have to approach it in an honest way.

The farmers who helped with the video, I was so taken with the time and effort they put in and it reflects how people come together to help each other out.There is a lot of pressure.

Weather is a big one you can put measures in place, but it is still completely out of your control.

I think farmers also do not feel valued by the public, but many are waving the flag for British agriculture on social media.

There are policy and financial pressures, plus the pig and poultry issues in the mainstream media. I get the feeling from farmers that they are unhappy with what is in the media and what the supermarkets are saying.

Then there is livestock worrying and fly tipping issues there are all these extra pressures.

Holly has seen support flood in from the farming community, along with major charities, such as MIND and the Samaritans.

But she said that Face Your Thoughts is about bringing it back to basics and to stop and take a moment even though it is sometimes easier said than done.

She said: It is about normalising mental health. I have had messages to say I feel seen after seeing your posts. I want to help people.