The Club’s guest this week was Emma Billings from Lincolnshire Rural Support Network (LRSN), a Lincolnshire based charity established 25 years ago to provide support to agricultural workers, their businesses, and families though one to one support and physical health and wellbeing services.
Farming has long been recognised as a tough profession with a high rate of suicide, and is likely harder than ever with increasing regulation, taxes and recent changes to inheritance tax to deal with. Emma confirmed this, explaining that 41% of farmers believe that their farms won’t be viable in 5 years time. Additionally, farmworkers spouses living in remote locations with husbands working long hours seven days a week can often feel very isolated.
LRSN runs a confidential helpline on 0800 138 1710 available from 8am to 8pm every day to offer help and advice to anyone in the agricultural or horticultural communities in need. Whether it be for personal issues like divorce or suicidal thoughts, or business matters such as succession planning or financial difficulties. Ongoing assistance is available when required via experienced volunteer caseworkers.
Another way LRSN helps its community is by providing free health screening in locations like Cattle Markets. Since doctors stopped giving out appointments, they have been very hard to access for anyone in full-time employment, so it’s not surprising that someone working long hours in a remote location struggles to find the time to access even basic services like blood pressure monitoring.
LRSN receives some support from DEFRA and the NHS but relies on donations from businesses and individuals to meet the rapidly increasing demand.
If you, or someone you know, would benefit from LRSN, or if you would like to volunteer or donate, you can find out more at their website https://www.lrsn.co.uk/