Podcasting About Mental Health
After four mental health related podcasts in a month - I’ve realised two key lessons. One personal… and one podcasting.
Almost accidentally, The Ducks on the Pond podcast has been focusing on mental health this month. I wasn't driving this at all. It came about by people contacting me about their concerns about wellbeing rumblings in rural Australia.
Steph Schmidt, psychologist at Farm Life Psych, approached me about a series about dealing with stress individually and in our family units. It opened my eyes to what was going on, beyond my patch. Sure, we had nasty crop-destroying storms last year where I am, in south-west Victoria… but farmers in Steph's area in South Australia, had experienced multiple disasters and tough conditions all in a row (or at the same time). There had been something we coined ‘cumulative stress’ to describe the feeling when it's just one thing on top of another. Each ‘thing’ is not insurmountable on its own… but cumulatively after fires, floods, labour shortages and high input costs… it can become exponentially stressful.
Approaching mental health issues in a podcast - some brief advice
Steph mapped out what we needed to talk about. I loved the idea - and I just guided the conversation for the series. Now, to get the best from Steph (and she knows her stuff, so it wasn’t hard), I actually spoke to her for a lot longer than you might think from the edited version.
Steph shared her own personal challenges with mental health, and that's not something you just ask about, straight out of the blocks. It needs time. Even if you're not going too deep… guests always warm up… if you speak to someone for 40 mins, the first 20 mins won't be nearly as good as the second 20 mins. So the rule of thumb, I like to use, is if I want a 40 min final edit - I need to speak to someone for 60 mins.
Of course, rules are there to be broken. Highly experienced guests may be quicker to chat to and others might take a lot longer, especially if they are nervous. But as a podcaster, give yourself that time. It's worth it.
Also, you should always double check after someone has shared deeply personal things with you, that they are ok with it being published. Sometimes people have second thoughts - and we should be supportive of them.
The issue grew…
Meanwhile, I started to hear some more mental health rumblings… this time from farmers in northern NSW and southern QLD. Again, not at all led by me. I saw a post on LinkedIn from Stuart Austin, of Wilmot Cattle Co - saying that rural people in his region weren't doing ok. The land had really dried out quickly and people were getting worried about the Bureau of Meteorology's predictions of El Nino and possibly a drought on the way. So he was asking his contacts for help. I replied not really knowing how I could help, but I was later asked to support getting the word out about a series of farmer-led workshops, called “Farmers Helping Our Own”. So, I interviewed Gem Green, NSW grazier, and one of the organisers of this movement, in an episode called: “Why there's a rally cry by farmers for mental health”, Gem really highlighted the need for a safe space for farmers to be able to talk, when they are worried and stressed - to help combat decision-paralysis during tough times.
So what did I learn?
Well many things actually (particularly the practical stress-diffuser techniques from Steph) - but these are the two overarching lessons:
We need to be proactive in dealing with stress
In farming communities we need to act as individuals (looking after ourselves), as well as being proactive in our interactions with our partners or other family members during stressful times (when we all feel our cups are empty). We can do this that acknowledging it’s a tough or busy time (ie. in harvest you might not see much of your partner)… so you need to find moments of connection, when and where you can. Then as community members - we need to feel safe to talk about how we’re really going and to be open about it if we’re not sure about something. Most people just want to help.
In podcasting - don’t be too beholden to your content plan
I was about to bring back regular programming on Ducks on the Pond - when I was approached by Steph. I am so glad I made it work. This is my professional reminder to keep your eyes and your ears open. Sometimes we can be so focused on pumping out the content - and we have it planned well in advance, that we can miss the chatter in our niche… that rising concern or issue, that we need to be talking about. And that’s exactly what happened this month. And it’s been one of the most fulfilling podcasting month for me, ever.
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