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Using ifarmwell was a positive experience
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“When I started it off I thought, ‘These guys have been reading my mind or watching me,’ because it seemed very pertinent, very pertinent. But also, just the fact that there’s no shame. I don't have to be ashamed of the fact that I can't help the things I can't help. That’s a very empowering and liberating sort of a thing, so I got that from you.” [female, 56 years, VICa, sheep and/or cattle property]
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Easy to use and navigate |
“Very usable, I was really impressed with the usability of it, it was very simple and I am quite computer literate but I can imagine that someone that perhaps wasn’t so computer literate, the layout and the sequential nature of it, was pretty good.” [female, 61 years, VIC, sheep and/or cattle property]
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Relatable and relevant to farmers |
“Yes, if it was just for the ordinary person, which would be, of course, an urban person, it would be very, very different. I'm very grateful it was something focused on farmers because it just - well, it personalised it. It understands what’s going on.” [male, 64 years, WAb, grain, sheep and/or cattle farm] “Because you’ve structured it for farmers. We’re very down-to-earth people, and I think some of these other courses weren’t down-to-earth enough. So, your language is being appropriate, your contents are appropriate, illustrations are brilliant.” [female, 66 years, NSWc, horticulture, market garden, and/or fruit growing] “But like it definitely - yeah read as something that was relevant from a rural perspective and approachable I guess, didn’t strike me as someone in an office in Sydney telling us how we should be dealing with the issues of rural mental health or whatever. Like it came across as real.” [female, 33 years, QLDd, sheep and/or cattle property]
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Content credible and well-developed |
“I’m just trying to think of the—yeah, I think everything—well, there was nothing in there that I feel was irrelevant or inappropriate at any point.” [male, 42 years, NSW, grain, sheep and/or cattle farm] “Yes, I think it’s quite credible. Everything that was written there it was well written, it was easy to understand. I know it said if you need help call Lifeline. There was, that was on there, so yes, it was quite good I thought. Definitely, it looked good. You have obviously spent a lot of work on it. I found it good.” [female, 31 years, VIC, grain, sheep and/or cattle farm]
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Appropriate language and explanations |
“It was good, it was simple. Not too simple that made you feel like, dumb or anything. They didn’t have big words either that you need to look up. So yes, it was quite appropriate I think for the demographic that you’re trying to target.” [female, 31 years, VIC, grain, sheep and/or cattle farm] “Just the way you chose the words, you didn’t make it more complex than it needed to be and you didn’t use technical jargon, it was very simple, everyday language.” [female, 61 years, VIC, sheep and/or cattle farm]
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Videos were relatable, accessible, good quality, and useful |
Again, I thought they (the videos) were really good because they are relatable and they are real. [female, 55, VIC, Dairy farm]
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Appropriate use of photographs and
cartoons |
“Yeah, so happy again with those because they really, I think they were chosen well to reflect the environment of the people that you’re hoping to reach. You know, kept things within that framework, so yeah, no, absolutely happy with all of those.” [male, 25 years, WA, grain, sheep and/or cattle farm]
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Modules were presented in a logical
sequence |
“I liked the way that it was broken up into different modules so that you were able to look at a section, do the skills and be exposed to some new skills and then have time to consolidate and think about that. For me, that’s a really good way to learn new skills, rather than just looking at something on that and then going ‘oh that was interesting’, it sort of was dribbled out a little bit over a period of time and I found that a really useful format for developing a structure for reflecting on how you deal with life and I think that’s a really useful way for a lot of farmers too.” [female, 61 years, VIC, sheep and/or cattle farm]
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Valued time to implement strategies
between modules |
“It was good because it gave you a chance to practice or think about some of the things that you’d discovered, and then—without overloading you, and then you had another follow-up at the next step. I really liked the way that it did that. Like I said, it made it a much more sustainable sort of process.” [male, 36 years, VIC, viticulture]
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Email, text, or voicemail, exercises,
reminders were helpful |
“Yeah, so as much as I hate enlisting in something and they keep bugging me all the time, I thought the texts as well as the things were good, particularly when you’ve got a fortnight between stuff. Yeah, I thought that was really good.” [male, 42 years, SAe, grain, sheep and/or cattle farm] “I used to be looking forward to when I got the little message on the phone that said, ‘Oi! It’s time for you to start doing that extra module.’ That’s something, I guess, that’s important for you lot. The fact that you contact us means that it seems that we’ve got a relationship or it seems that we matter.” [female, 56 years, VIC, sheep and/or cattle farm]
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Practical strategies |
“It was good....It was quite practical in the way it was presented, the information was presented...Some of the examples that were presented and things like that were something you can easily identify with. It didn't go into too much detail.” [male, 36 years, VIC, viticulture] “Yeah, I thought it was interesting, I quite like it, I liked the practicality of it actually. I think that was probably the biggest selling point. What I would kind of tell people if I were to recommend it would be there’s a lot of practical advice in there, I think that’s missing in a lot of stuff. So yeah, no that was definitely the high point of it.” [male, 25 years, WA, grain, sheep and/or cattle farm]
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Using ifarmwell facilitated self-reflection |
“I think—it took me a long time to identify and realize that I needed to do something with my mental health. It takes a lot to go forward and speak to someone, so being able to go through those modules on your own and identify where you need—you might need some help or even just identifying a few things that you can do for yourself, I think that probably suits farmers or anyone I've ever dealt with at work. I think being able to do something on your own to start with and get a [00:08:38], if this gives you a bit of information, really, to—then if you want to go to someone, you can say, ‘Look, this is what I think I need help with.’ That’s where I really struggled. I didn't know—I didn't really know what to—if I was going to go and talk to someone, I didn't really know what to say. But now I—having gone through those modules, it really highlighted for me.” [male, 36 years, VIC, viticulture]
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A necessary and timely resource |
“I hope it rolls out because to me it’d be a fair loss if it did not keep going—for sure. So I suppose that means that I better swallow my pride and actually tell someone about it.” [male, 42 years, SA, grain, sheep and/or cattle farm] “I think it’s a good program, you’d say, I suppose. It’s probably what we need right now too.” [female, 31 years, VIC, grain, sheep and/or cattle farm] “So no, I hope it doesn’t disappear because I think there is a definite need there.” [female, 33 years, QLD, sheep and/or cattle farm]
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Appreciated the opportunity to add tools to Toolbox and refer back to summary sheets over time |
“I quite liked the way you could put stuff in your Toolbox. You could find those things that were potentially going to work for you and put them somewhere so you can refer to them later or coming back to them.” [male, 36 years, VIC, viticulture]
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Able to understand strategies and apply them to life |
“Just looking at the things I've printed out and stuck on the wall that I thought—be curious. Yes. Always be curious. Always investigate. Put your attention into the here and now. That is—that’s important.” [female, 71 years, NSW, sheep and/or cattle farm] “I think it was good. Sure I got some pointers and some tips from that as to how to get over the long and low periods. I mean these are common factors but of course at times when you are down and out you can’t think of anything. But these few straight from the program sure help and create that awareness that you can do this or you can do that and give it a go. And it sure help, useful help” [female, 55 years, VIC, sheep and/or cattle farm]
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Appreciated privacy and anonymity |
“And like, in this environment, if you want to go to town and go and see a counsellor or a psychologist to say that you happen to live in an area where there is one there, that’s probably only going to be an every-now-and-again type visit, it is very difficult to - like I can’t even make a doctor’s appointment for a script around here with the whole f****** district knowing. Something like that, nobody needs to know. And I know that that actually goes slightly against what we are trying to say is yeah, it is okay to ask for help and it is okay to reach out but sometimes it is actually good to have that first step or offering people resources that doesn’t involve anybody knowing about it necessarily.” [female, 33 years, QLD, sheep and/or cattle farm]
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Willing to recommend to peers |
“Yeah, so I’d definitely be willing to—I reckon it definitely has a space, it fills a need that isn’t really getting addressed so far.” [male, 25 years, WA, grain, sheep and/or cattle farm] “That’s where I'm doing most of my promoting. I say to the girls—not just girls, to all the people, ‘This ifarmwell thing, it was a brilliant idea because this helps. It’s particularly tailored for farmers.’” [female, 56 years, VIC, sheep and/or cattle farm]
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Value for themselves but unsure about how best to recommend to others |
“Yeah I would definitely and I actually thought, while I was going through, there is probably—well, I actually think it would do my partner a lot of good to do it as well, but I haven’t quite worked out how to encourage him to do that. But I definitely would given the right type of circumstances” [female, 33 years, QLD, sheep and/or cattle farm]
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Areas for improvement
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More farmer-focused language |
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Improve the sound quality of audio files |
“Actually one thing that was a bit of a problem was the, when there was meditations that, the girl that was doing the meditations, her voice was quite low and I couldn’t turn it up. So that was a bit of an issue. I could get through with it but it was, that was something that I did notice” [female, 62 years, TASf, horticulture, market garden, and/or fruit growing]
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Include additional reminders |
“Maybe more reminders. I know for me I obviously signed up and I suppose people that do sign up to do these things do have the intent to do it. Like everything, you sort of get emails from here, there and that’s just life these days and that’s just the way it is. But I would appreciate obviously another reminder being like ‘Come on!’” [female, 23 years, NSW, sheep and/or cattle farm]
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Shorten module 3 |
“I think that one [module 3] took me the longest time, actually. I did—I think a lot of those things were relevant, and then after a while I dragged and dropped all these things and I began to regret it a little bit, because it took so much time to sort it out and comment on each one. I think that’s what happened, so it was a bit lengthy.” [male, 64 years, WA, grain, sheep and/or cattle farm]
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Remind users to double tap to select
answers on iPads and iPhones |
“The only thing- like there was a note about it was that you had to double tap because I did a fair bit of it on my phone and...a couple of times like you would do your multiple choice and I would have to go back because it would say you haven’t answered it. I’m like, ‘Oh, I did answer it.’ But just so obviously hadn’t but there was a note in there telling you what you had to do and that was fine but I would say that was more operator error than internet thing.” [female, 33 years, QLD, sheep and/or cattle farm]
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Context
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Farmers are time poor |
“I am thinking about—from it personally but I am also thinking about it in terms of professionally and how I would perhaps recommend something like that to farmers that I am working with as well and I think that the fact that it’s not a very time consuming thing, each module means that you can just do a little bit at a time and you can jump in and out of it, depending on what time requirements you have so the overall structure I thought was terrific from that perspective.” [female, 61 years, VIC, sheep and/or cattle farm]
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Mental health stigma |
“I guess probably a lot of farmers probably baulk when they hear something about mental health, feelings and emotions and that sort of thing” [male, 36 years, VIC, viticulture] “I think it’s a really good idea because it’s—farmers are very proud people. They won't always go and seek help. But this is kind of non-threatening. They don't have to talk to anybody if they don't want to.” [female, 57 years, TAS, grain, sheep and/or cattle farm]
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Drought |
“We can't do anything about the weather. We can't change it. I haven't got any feed.” [female, 71 years, NSW, sheep and/or cattle farm] “And the other things I liked about it was just that you are farmer-orientated, which is totally different to any of the other help—beyondblue, Black Dog, they’re all just for general people but farming situations are particularly unique and your ‘ifarmwell’ tapped in to that—so the idea that drought or cattle prices that you can't influence and, more importantly, succession.” [female, 56 years, VIC, sheep and/or cattle farm]
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Women are perceived as most likely to use and recommend |
“I think, the wives, I reckon the wives would be more likely to be interested in it.” [female, 62 years, TAS, horticulture, market garden, and/or fruit growing]
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