Lee takes over AHDB Pork Twitter feed to discuss mental health

19^th Feb 2021 / By Alistair Driver

Young NPA member Lee Thompson took over AHDB Pork's Twitter feed on Thursday to discuss mental health.

Lee Thompson 2 Lee, who recently joined Harbro, won the 2020 National Pig Awards Special Achievement Award for his work in encouraging people to talk about their mental health through his Flat White Chats podcast.

As part of Yellow Wellies' #MindYourHead week, throughout the day, he posted a number of videos highlighting some 'top tips', under three main headings:

Talking
Get Outside
Stop Comparing Yourself.

On encouraging people to talk, Lee said: "Pick up the Telephone receiver to that mate you’ve been meaning to call for the last couple of months. Send a text Mobile phone to check in with that friend who’s been isolated during lockdown. Schedule a FaceTime call for a Clinking beer mugs & catch up after work

"Once someone is taking that first step, it's most definitely the most important. Obviously during this time that we're in it's very strange and difficult and we miss out on a lot of social interaction."

If you missed it, you can catch up on Lee's comments HERE

Support for the farming industry

At this particularly difficult time for the pig sector, it is worth remembering there is a lot of support out there for farming people and their familiies.

As part of farming charity RABI’s long term objective to be able to support farmer wellbeing with targeted services in the future, it recently launched an online mental wellbeing site for farming people (Kooth/Qwell), which can be viewed here: www.rabi.org.uk/kooth

RABI said it has received a great number of responses to its recently-launched Big Farming Survey so far but it is keen to maintain momentum up until the deadline of March 31. It wants to receive 26,000 responses to the largest survey of its type to help paint a true picture of the state of mental and physical wellbeing within the industry and to help shape its future services.

The online survey is available here: www.rabi.org.uk/BigFarmingSurvey

Key contacts

If you or any of your staff are struggling, please consider contacting any of the following support organisations, some of which are dedicsted to helping the farming and rural communities:

The Farming Community Network (FCN)

Website: www.fcn.org.uk

Phone: 03000 111 999

You Are Not Alone (YANA)

Website: www.yanahelp.org

National Directory Of Rural Support Groups

Phone: 0300 323 0400

Lincolnshire Rural Support Network (LRSN)

Website: www.lrsn.co.uk

Phone: 0800 138 1710

The Royal Agricultural Benevolent Institution (RABI)

Website: www.rabi.org.uk