Warning: This story contains discussion about suicide.
Leigh Hickey is good at home in the requirements to work as a shaving in the Australia countryside.
The isolation of external activities and the deep -rooted culture of masculinity and toughness are among challenges that employees are confronted with.
“If you have a bad day, you don’t bring that to work,” said Mr. Hickey.
“Although you are there with a room full of people, it can be a very lonely day when you are here, lost with eight hours of your own thoughts.”
Leigh Hickey has been a Scheerder for 10 years. ((ABC Fixed line: Floss Adams))
Raised in the NSW countryside, Mr Hickey started after leaving the school and soon formed a close friendship with colleague Mitchell Power.
“You wanted to go to work every day so that you could hang out with your best size,” said Mr. Hickey.
“He was one of those people that it didn’t matter where he went, he made friends.“
The friends and family of Mr Power in his hometown Bombala, in the NSW Snowy Mountains, did not know that he was struggling with his mental health.
There was shock and enormous sadness when Mr. Power took his own life in December 2021.
He was only 22 years old.
Mitchell Power wanted to be a Scheerder since he was a young boy. ((Delivered))
“There is not a day that passes where it feels like there is no empty space,”
Said Hickey.
“It will never be easier to deal with.”
Suicide figures are higher in remote Australia than in the rest of the population, according to the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare.
Safework NSW has attributed financial pressure and insulation as potential factors that contribute to the higher percentages of depression within the agricultural industry.
Mr. Power’s mother, Tracy Power, said that men were under extra pressure to be “strong”, making them the feeling that they had to be confronted privately for psychological problems.
“I don’t know if Mitch didn’t feel like he wanted to burden someone, but it’s not a bother. You have to speak,”
she said.
Tracy Power hopes that talking about her son’s story will encourage others to speak. ((ABC Fixed line: Floss Adams))
Rapid shear
Mrs. Power never intends to become a spokesperson for mental health care, but she was determined to keep her son’s memory alive.
The first annual Mitch Power Quick Shear event was held in 2022 to celebrate his birthday, pulling shakeers from all over the country to compete during the biting winter.
“It’s just great. It’s a very reassuring day, but it’s tiring … Sometimes you wish you didn’t do it because you remember the reason why you are doing it,” said Mrs. Power.
Competitors come from all over the country to participate in the Mitch Power Quick Shear event. ((ABC Fixed line: Floss Adams))
On the same footing with sweaty speed shift and community energy, the aim is to remove the taboo around mental health.
“If a person gets something out of it and saves the life of one person on that specific day of that event, then that is a family that is happy,” said Mrs. Power.
“It is a situation that everyone can touch at any time. We just have to get it there it is OK to open up.“
The ‘barn family’
The Mitch Power Quick Shear event also raises money for much-needed mental health care in the Snowy Mountains region.
“When Mitch passed – not that we were looking for it at the time – but there was nothing for young men in the area,” said Mrs. Power.
Dubbo Local Carol Mudford started in 2023 with mental health and suicide prevention, charity institution. ((ABC Fixed line: Floss Adams))
Lawyer Carol Mudford of mental health tries to fill that supportive gap in Bombala and in the countryside of Australia, with the non-profit suicide filmminfit.
Shedway volunteers work on training shaving people about how they can find and call to support services, and how they can notice that they or their colleagues may struggle.
“Our goal is to see everyone working in the sliding barns that provide their mental health, as well as a shaving will take care of their shear equipment,”
Said Mudford.
The event attracts people of all ages. ((ABC Fixed line: Floss Adams))
She said that external work in the shear industry made it difficult to gain access to support.
“We work casually, we work long hours and often far from the city,” she said.
Mrs. Mudford said that charity had volunteers throughout the country, but she wanted to see more supporting services in the Australia countryside.
“People are ready and want to talk … and are ready to get in touch with the services. We really need the services to be there [to] Meet this need, “she said.
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A changing culture
The local population of Bombala has organized that the mental health evenings for mental health care have organized and working on keeping the conversation for the mind.
“There is absolutely more consciousness, and I think they are that [the community] Start opening up slowly, “said MS Power.
Mitch Power depicted as a child. ((ABC Fixed line: Floss Adams))
Mr. Hickey said that he had noticed a changing culture during his decade of tearing off, but the work was far from over.
“Unfortunately, those who normally lose are those who don’t say anything,”
Said Hickey.
“You don’t know until it’s too late.
“If I can prevent another person from dying, I have done something.”
View the fixed line of ABC TV at 12.30 pm Aest on Sunday or stream at any time ABC IView.
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