18th October: FB LIVE CHAT, Naked Farmer!
We have a VERY exciting guest for October's Infobus:
Ben Brooksby, aka The Naked Farmer!
Join us on the 18th of October at 7pm AEDT
For the first time ever, we will hosting this event as a Live Chat on Facebook, between myself, and Ben!
This way you get to see the faces, hear the voices, and interact!
This is our first time doing this, so we are excited to learn and see how it goes.
You will be able to ask questions , and be able to interact in real time, while we are chatting.
So who is this Naked Farmer and why is he nude???
His name is Ben, and he has decided to do something to tackle the stigma surrounding mental health!
Ben reckons that "it takes guts to get your gear off as it takes guts to talk about mental health."
Please keep to the guidelines.
Don't forget to tune in!
Submit your questions here to be asked on the night! They could be about Ben, his work, this project, mental health, farming... whatever!
What do you think about the nude farmer calendar idea?
Probably wouldn't hang that calendar in my house but... I guess some people will!
I missed this part of the chat on FB - What's the general idea/
@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!
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
the calander isn't my style, but if others want to buy it why not 🙂
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! 😛
New question!
Did you know about the added mental health pressures and stigma that people experience in rural areas?
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. 
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 
@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.
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
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 :))
If you're reading this, though, feel free to still join the discussion! 😄 It's been an awesome night
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?
Uh hmmm I'm going to say horses tonight because I was obsessed woth horses growing up and always dreamed of owning a horse!
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 !!
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
Head over to the Cute Baby Animals thread if you want more adorableness 😄
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.
