Rural communities still face plenty of challenges in the recover from Cyclone Gabrielle. Pictured are firefighters on Puketapu Rd, west of Napier, after the floods. Photo / Mark Mitchell
Rural communities still face plenty of challenges in the recover from Cyclone Gabrielle. Pictured are firefighters on Puketapu Rd, west of Napier, after the floods. Photo / Mark Mitchell
Speak to a loved one or a doctor about your mental health if the impact of Cyclone Gabrielle is taking its toll.
That is the advice of a Puketapu mother and daughter who are doing their best to raise awareness about the importance of mental health after losing a family friend to suspected suicide in March.
Nicki Picen has been meeting with MPs and sharing messages on social media following the loss of her friend.
She said there were many people in Hawke’s Bay communities including farmers, people in the horticulture industry, and business owners who were struggling to cope with the enormity of cyclone recovery.
“I can see that people aren’t good, and they are not alright ... they are bloody struggling and need help.”
Picen said she was asking MPs for more mental health support and encouraged anyone who was not coping to speak to a doctor, and not be embarrassed about asking for help, particularly men in rural communities.
“I think a lot of us have been brought up to have that thinking of ‘we can’t be seen to be struggling’ or ‘if we take antidepressants that makes us crazy’ and those sorts of things.
Farmers are dealing with kilometres of broken fences and paddocks covered by silt. These trucks are dropping off large amounts of silt at a deposit site near Napier. Photo / Warren Buckland
“And people - especially men - don’t want to admit that they aren’t coping because they feel that they will lose, I suppose, respect that they have gained over their lifetime.
“It’s still looked at like you should just harden up and get on with things.”
She said that culture was extremely harmful and needed to change.
She said the family of her late friend wanted people to know “the feelings they have now would never be wished on their worst enemy”.
“They don’t want this to happen to anyone else.”
Nicki’s daughter Annalise Picen, 19, has also been doing her best to spread a similar message around her workplace.
She said men, in particular, should not be ashamed about talking to a loved one about their mental health.
“There is this whole stigma that it will make them less of a man, but it doesn’t - it makes them stronger.”
In Puketapu, a weekly catch-up for nearby farmers and growers has been set up to make sure people know they are not alone, and rural communities are doing their best to support one another.
Meanwhile, a free online event called The Big Check-In is being held on Thursday from 7pm-8.30pm to support the wellbeing of farmers, growers, fishers and rural communities affected by the cyclone.
It will provide practical wellbeing tools and also stories from people impacted by the cyclone. Go online and search The Big Check-In to register.
A large number of organisations have teamed up to put on the event.
Last week, a Hawke’s Bay fruit growing advocate told Hawke’s Bay Today the emotional toll “is just enormous” for growers navigating the cyclone recovery, including what to do with silt-covered orchards.
