originally posted on 18-10-2018 9:14 PM

@annabethxchase ahh sorry i missed your question!
All the proceeds from the calendar sales go to the RFDS Mental Health Unit, which provides mental health support and education in rural communities. So the calendar hits two birds with one stone, raising both money and awareness, pretty rad imo!

originally posted on 18-10-2018 8:38 PM

@lokifish I hear you! My town is remoteish but small so like maccas would be about 10mins from me depending on traffic lol - but I don't eat maccas 😛

originally posted on 18-10-2018 8:39 PM

What do you think about the nude farmer calendar idea? 

originally posted on 18-10-2018 8:45 PM

What do you think about the nude farmer calendar idea? 
I love the idea! A little bit cheeky but very cool. It's also super cool to see how many people stuck up their hands to get involved by having their picture taken

originally posted on 18-10-2018 8:56 PM

What do you think about the nude farmer calendar idea?

the calander isn't my style, but if others want to buy it why not 🙂

originally posted on 18-10-2018 8:43 PM

What do you think about the nude farmer calendar idea?

I think it's a great way to start a conversation, if nothing else! I've always thought the "naked fireman" calendars etc. were kind of poor taste, but I realise that lots of people love 'em. I'm fine with it as long as the money goes to a good cause! 😛

 

Here's some more info about the RFDS Mental Health Service

originally posted on 18-10-2018 8:39 PM

@Bee I'm vego so don't eat Maccas either, but $1 frozen vanilla cokes shall be my death sentence (may or may not have gone through the drive through on the way home today.......... -shifty eyes- :P)

originally posted on 18-10-2018 8:50 PM

@lokifish ayeee vegos !!

originally posted on 18-10-2018 8:57 PM

New question!
Did you know about the added mental health pressures and stigma that people experience in rural areas? 

originally posted on 18-10-2018 9:03 PM

Did you know about the added mental health pressures and stigma that people experience in rural areas? 

I did actually! A lot of the family i have in the country, especially older generations, have a really tough time talking about mental health, especially their own. I've really noticed this in the men particularly. Super cool to see men like Ben opening up about their mental health to encourage others. 

originally posted on 18-10-2018 9:03 PM

Did you know about the added mental health pressures and stigma that people experience in rural areas? 

 

It's really hard! In both my nursing and psychology training, for example, rural areas come up a lot in ethics. Because not many people live in the country (duh) the chance of you running into a client is really quite high, so there's potential issues there - what if the client is your hairdresser? Or your mechanic? What if people find out about it? (word travels fast in small towns!)

 

There's also MAJOR issues with rural mental health funding in general. Attracting clinicians to rural areas and keeping them there for longer than 12 or 24 months is really hard. That's why services like the RFDS are so crucial in my opinion

originally posted on 18-10-2018 9:07 PM

@lokifish Those are both such important points! It's something we might not even think about in the city.
It must be so frustrating trying to coordinate rural services when people come and go 😞 I can imagine that mental health services end up even more sparse than medical ones. 

originally posted on 18-10-2018 9:14 PM

Did you know about the added mental health pressures and stigma that people experience in rural areas? 
I agree with @lokifish it's actually common for me to run into my psychologist on her off days!
So yeah I guess I couls say yes to that question, I'm just not focused enough to elaborate

originally posted on 18-10-2018 9:15 PM

@ecla34 definitely. I imagine it must be really hard for the people who live there - you might finally find someone you 'click' with and then a few months later they move back to the city. It's hard when you're in a country as big as Australia. I'm not sure what the solution is, but at least now we have things like telehealth services

Speaking of which, maybe it'd be worth having a discussion on the forums about telehealth? Anyone here familiar with the system? (aside from @Bee :))

originally posted on 18-10-2018 9:22 PM

Well, folks, I'm gonna head off and grab some food...

If you're reading this, though, feel free to still join the discussion! 😄 It's been an awesome night

originally posted on 18-10-2018 9:28 PM

I might head off as well, but not before adding the most important question:
What's your favourite farm animal?
The answer to that for me would be baby goats 

Please feel free to keep the conversation going! What's everyone's favourite?

originally posted on 18-10-2018 9:37 PM

Favorite farm animal... omg this is too hard they are all adorable in their own way...
Uh hmmm I'm going to say horses tonight because I was obsessed woth horses growing up and always dreamed of owning a horse!

originally posted on 18-10-2018 9:40 PM

What's your favourite farm animal?

do sheep dogs count haha, i don’t really have much experience with farm animals. maybe horses, lambs and llamas because my friend has them on her farm and they’re are so cute !!

originally posted on 19-10-2018 10:34 AM

Hey everyone - thank you to everyone for jumping in with the questions and keeping the chat going. 

 

@litgym @Bee @ecla34 @lokifish @annabethxchase @mrmusic 

Such  an important conversation around rural mental health, mental health generally, and reducing stigma..while having a bit of fun! 

You can still watch the video over here - thanks for bearing with us with the mic/ sound issues... ! We will need to sort that out if we ever do it again. 

 

Don't forget to check out what The Naked Farmer (Ben) is up to over here on the gram and here on FB - or his website here! 

 

 

Here's my fav screen grab.. lol 

 

 

originally posted on 19-10-2018 4:29 PM

@gina-RO that screen grab is hilarious! 😄

I agree with @lokifish clearly it's all the microphones fault 🙂

 

 

 

 

originally posted on 19-10-2018 2:49 PM

HAHAHA love that @gina-RO! Clearly you were annoyed at the microphone 😛

 

My favourite farm animal.... oh they're all so cute!!

 

 

 

 

 

(I may or may not have been the person who asked this question, and 90% of the others like @litgym claimed 😛 I JUST WANTED TO POST ANIMAL GIFS OKAY!)

originally posted on 19-10-2018 2:52 PM

BAHAHAHHA @lokifish

originally posted on 19-10-2018 2:50 PM

Head over to the Cute Baby Animals thread if you want more adorableness 😄

originally posted on 18-10-2018 8:30 PM

Had you heard of the Naked Farmer before this chat?
I have to admit i hadn't, although i'm not really an Instagram-y person so that might be why! 
When this infobus was being organised my first thought was actually organic food, like naked farmer, no pesticides 
I'm really glad i know about this movement now though, it's such a creative and attention grabbing way of de-stigmatising talking about mental health. It's like Ben said in the chat, if we keep the conversation going, reaching out becomes way more normalised and way less daunting.