{"id":624119,"date":"2026-09-14T06:42:09","date_gmt":"2026-09-14T06:42:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/624119\/"},"modified":"2026-09-14T06:42:09","modified_gmt":"2026-09-14T06:42:09","slug":"northumberland-urges-farmers-to-seek-mental-health-support","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/624119\/","title":{"rendered":"Northumberland urges farmers to seek mental health support"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>\n  The message comes from <a href=\"https:\/\/www.hexham-courant.co.uk\/local-news\/northumberland-news\/?ref=au\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Northumberland<\/a> County Council, which is encouraging those in the industry to reach out for support amid growing pressures in the sector.\n<\/p>\n<p>\n  Mark Mather, county councillor and a farmer in Wooler, said: &#8220;As a farmer myself, I can relate to the difficulties those working in the industry are facing at the moment.\n<\/p>\n<p>\n  &#8220;The outbreak of Bluetongue, movement restrictions across the border, concerns about accessing vaccine and the time it takes to get test results are a real concern, so we are going to write to the Government again and push for faster testing and access to vaccines.\n<\/p>\n<p>\n  &#8220;All this comes after a very challenging summer of hot, dry weather.\n<\/p>\n<p>\n  &#8220;When additional difficulties such as caring for sick animals or concerns about the spread of Bluetongue are added in to that, it raises concerns and stress even further.\n<\/p>\n<p>\n  &#8220;Farmers work long hours, often in isolation.\n<\/p>\n<p>\n  &#8220;And in most cases, our place of business is also our home, meaning there is no easy way to get away from work pressures.\n<\/p>\n<p>\n  &#8220;Mental health is profoundly important to quality of life, and I would encourage anyone who is feeling overwhelmed to please reach out to someone.&#8221;\n<\/p>\n<p>\n  Councillor Mather\u2019s comments follow a recent appeal from the council\u2019s trading standards and animal health team following a confirmed outbreak of the Bluetongue virus occurring in the west of the county.\n<\/p>\n<p>\n  Bluetongue is a notifiable disease and any suspected cases must be reported to the Animal and Plant Health Agency (APHA).\n<\/p>\n<p>\n  It affects sheep, cattle, goats, and alpacas but poses no risk to humans or food safety.\n<\/p>\n<p>\n  For information about support organisations available\u00a0visit: <a href=\"https:\/\/defrafarming.blog.gov.uk\/wellbeing-support-for-farmers\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">https:\/\/defrafarming.blog.gov.uk\/wellbeing-support-for-farmers\/<\/a>\u00a0\n<\/p>\n<p>\n  And for more information about\u00a0mental health\u00a0support\u00a0in Northumberland, visit:\u00a0\n<\/p>\n<p>\n  <a href=\"https:\/\/www.northumberland.gov.uk\/public-health\/health-support\/mental-health-and-wellbeing\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">https:\/\/www.northumberland.gov.uk\/public-health\/health-support\/mental-health-and-wellbeing<\/a>\u00a0\n<\/p>\n<p>\n  Further\u00a0questions and queries can be sent to\u00a0the county council\u2019s animal health team.\u00a0\u00a0Email: <a href=\"https:\/\/www.hexham-courant.co.uk\/news\/26543324.northumberland-urges-farmers-seek-mental-health-support\/mailto:tradingstandards@northumberland.gov.uk\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">tradingstandards@northumberland.gov.uk<\/a>\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The message comes from Northumberland County Council, which is encouraging those in the industry to reach out for&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":624120,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[35],"tags":[103,61,60,410,411],"class_list":["post-624119","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-mental-health","tag-health","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-mental-health","tag-mentalhealth"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/624119","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=624119"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/624119\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/624120"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=624119"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=624119"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=624119"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}