Grace shared her experiences since the death of her father, and what she is doing to raise awareness of the need for mental health support in Aotearoa New Zealand
She began by telling us that five and a half years ago her father, a farmer and father of three,
committed suicide. This was obviously a tremendous shock in the lives of her family, and since then
she has been advocating for mental health. Two things she remembers her dad teaching her were;
“always shop the outside aisles of the supermarket (beer, bread, meat, vegies)”, and “never go food
shopping when you are hungry.”
After her father’s death, it was six days before the family had any contact from an agency, and later
learned that she suffered from PTSD. Grace told us that in this situation, she believes that knowledge
is power. In discussion, the mental health of farmers was talked about, and that with knowledge,
intervention and support could be implemented before it is too late. IN Grae’s words “This impacts a
lot of humans. Our challenge is to get it early before it is too difficult to manage, and to keep going
in the dark days”.
Grace has wondered whether their experience was just bad luck, but she has since learned that
there are many other families who have a member with similar issues, and that sometimes the
issues are not recognised until it is too late. She then happened to meet two other people whose
experiences were similar to hers, and as a result, “Cool Change NZ” was formed. This website is “A
place to speak out about grief, discuss how to get through trauma and to campaign for change.”
https://coolchangenzz.wixsite.com/website
Since then they have been inundated and overwhelmed with messages. They have been connecting
with others such as the Ministry of Health, door knocking and emailing, to raise awareness about
mental health problems in NZ.
Grace has very recently published a book: The best is yet to come” The book is about her
experiences, finding a way forward for NZ, and for better mental health services. Appointments are
hard to get, and AI is not the most attractive counsellor. Grace is advocating for services to come to
the person e.g. come to the farm to wrap around and support family members as well as the person
who is ill, as farmers seldom have time to go into town for an appointment.
The proceeds from sales of her book are going to go to “Voices of Hope”
https://thevoicesofhope.org/