Hello and welcome to she makes news. It's Friday, October 11. I'm your host, Kimberly Finesse, and this is your weekly wrap up for regional women in Australia. It was World Mental Health Day on Thursday this week, and rural psychologist Steph Schmidt says it's important to keep that conversation going.

I've had mixed feelings today, I think, because I think it's another one of those days that I don't want it just to be right. We'll talk about mental health today and then we'll forget about it tomorrow. But it's important to highlight the challenges that are out there and what we need to keep on doing to help our mental health, both at an individual level, but I think also at a kind of community and social level as well.

The mental wellbeing of farmers in drought stricken South Australia has become a pressing concern. Steph, who is based 2 hours north of Adelaide, has been working to address the growing emotional toll that farmers face, particularly during one of the state's driest seasons on record.

Pretty much all of agricultural South Australia is on very low or one of its worst years in terms of rainfall and drought, and then added on top that a couple of weeks ago got hit with really severe frosts as well. So there's been really significant impacts to crops and livestock feed as well. And so I think there's just obviously the financial pressures that are there that come with the loss of crops and loss of income, but there's also that kind of ongoing stress. And I think that's one of the catches of drought, is that it's such a slow creep, a slow buildup, and you're constantly thinking, right, it'll rain next week, it'll shift, it'll change. And so there's that build up of chronic stress, chronic uncertainty, which really starts to take its toll.

A farmer herself, Steph emphasises the importance of taking proactive steps to build our mental fitness every day, rather than waiting for a crisis. One of her key messages during these challenging times is that you are not your farm.

No matter what's happened on your farm, if your crops have failed or you haven't had the outcomes that you've planned for, that doesn't mean you're a failure, that your self worth isn't actually tied to how well your farm is or isn't doing. And I think that's a really helpful thing that we can remind each other of and remind ourselves of.

Steph also advocates for simple, actionable steps farmers can take to maintain their mental wellbeing, like engaging in small improvements on the farm and taking micro breaks.

At the moment, my husband and boys are working on just doing fencing every day and those little improvements that don't cost a huge amount, but you get that sense of satisfaction at the end of the day and you're working on improvements as well. And I guess the other thing I like to share is just not necessarily getting a break away from the farm, but how you get little, like micro breaks within your day. It might just be as simple as stopping and looking around you, because I think when we're on the farm, it's actually pretty spectacular views in that that we get around us. So stopping and getting present to what's actually going on right now and stepping out of the head noise that goes on a lot of the time for ourselves.

As drought conditions continue to worsen, Steph says the need for ongoing mental health conversations and proactive mental fitness remains crucial for farming communities across the country as rural Women's day approaches. Jelena Whittaker is ensuring rural mothers in remote areas have the support and connection they need through two special virtual events.

I think it's really important to focus on self care as mothers. What I'm learning is that especially with homeschool mums, they are very eager to enrol their children in workshops and opportunities, take them to park place, all that sort of thing. But when it comes to themselves, they're just not really making that time and I'm actually guilty of that as well.

Jelena is the founder of home Education Rural and Remote discussion or heard. The rural mother of four is passionate about homeschooling and creating connections for families in some of Australia's most remote areas. To mark rural Women's Day, Jelena is launching two virtual events aimed at celebrating and supporting rural mothers who often overlook their own self care while focusing on their children's education.

So we invite our homeschool mums and their friends to come along to our book Lovers Club launch. What you expect in that is there's no prescribed book list. We're just going to have a casual conversation about the books. We love the books we're reading, our authors, so we're having that on rural Women's Day. And then the following night we're going to have our celebrating new workshop with Rebecca Bradshaw, the rural child health nurse. And she's going to be taking us through just a fun and engaging workshop where we are prioritizing our. And there's a workbook and we are working through how we can take care of ourselves and just have a fun.

Time doing it, Jelena started heard to offer rural homeschooling families a sense of community while also providing educational opportunities for their children. Heard has grown from a simple facebook group into a nationwide community of over 600 families, offering resources like virtual events, workshops and learning programs such as code club and story factory.

What I wanted to do was to help other australian homeschoolers who live outside of those metro areas to find connection, to find community and also to provide some actual learning opportunities for the students.

Despite the challenges of homeschooling in regional and rural areas such as big distances, unreliable Internet and lack of services, Jelena saw the potential for homeschooling to be a powerful choice for families looking for an alternative to traditional schooling options I.

Don'T promote homeschool as a better choice, I promote it as another choice and the idea is to support parents who want to homeschool and not feel the need to that they have to send their kids away to boarding school or that they have to do the prescribed australian curriculum through distance education and that homeschooling can be another option, just like you would send your kids to co ed or to a private school. That it is another option that parents can do. It's great because it's child led, it's great because it's family oriented.

Jelena also highlights the difference between distance education and home education, explaining how homeschooling gives parents the flexibility to design their children's curriculum while staying in their rural communities.

So distance education, you still belong to a registered school, you are a mainstream student and you will be following the australian curriculum, you'll be following those grades and those levels. The idea with homeschooling is that the parents are the main provider of the education and they build a curriculum or a program around their child and that is approved through their state and then they have the flexibility to be able to just tailor it that way.

Jelena's vision for heard is one of continued organic growth, providing both educational opportunities for students and social support for parents while advocating for home education to be recognised in broader discussions about rural education in Australia. It's been said that 19 year old Annabelle Price from rural Victoria is the first female in Australia to obtain the new agricultural telehandler license. Annabelle completed the hands on course last week through license training Australia at O'Connors in Horsham Worksafe, Victoria requires operators of non slewing tally handlers with a capacity over three tonne to hold a high risk work licence. This regulation aims to ensure safe and competent operation of tally handlers, particularly in industries like agriculture and construction. Annabelle described the course as practical and insightful, involving lots of practice driving.

I did the course because it's one, it helps me get a job easier, and two, probably gives me a bit more of an understanding about how the machine works. So prior to that I had driven them a little bit, but it gives you a better understanding of the machine itself, like how to read load charts and the weight range that I hadn't previously been taught or didn't really understand. Now, having a telehandler license, I can pretty much go and do anything in the ag industry with a telehandler. So whether that be shifting hay, loading.

Trucks, anything like that for other farmers considering the course, Annabelle had these tips.

If you're worried about doing it, don't be.

It's super simple.

If you go in there, read the questions, go in with an open mind, it'll be fine.

Having grown up around farming, Annabelle is following her passion for agriculture by pursuing a degree in agricultural science in Wagga Wagga next year. For now, she's gaining experience as a shedding hand on a farm in Ararat.

Being a shed hand gives you the opportunity to meet new people and find out things that you didn't really know, like career wise. And there's so many different options in the ag industry. It's so diverse and you can pretty much find yourself to fit in anywhere in the ag industry. And I just, I love it.

And her advice to other young women looking to pursue a career in ag?

If you want to do it, go and do it. There's no excuse why you can't go and do the same as any other fella around. So just give everything a go.

Now for some news headlines for World Mental Health Day. Womankind is proud to launch, one for one, a national campaign urging the state and federal government and private companies to invest more in the early intervention and prevention of youth mental health by providing young people with access to the Womankind app for twelve months. Why? Because in Australia, over 60% of young females aged twelve to 24 are struggling with psychological distress. That's more than half of every sports team, classroom, and choir. Womankind founder Ruby Reeth Muller says her foundation has already supported over 25,000 young people. During October, Ruby says every premium subscription to the Womankind app that the government or any company commits to womankind will do the same. One for one. Email rubyomankind.com dot au to learn more and get involved. Fama turned filmmaker Layla McDougall is gathering insights on the impact of her film just a farmer and would love to hear your thoughts. Layla says the feedback will help them reach more people and expand the film into new markets. Check our show notes for the link that's your weekly wrap up for regional women. You'll find links in our show notes for anything that's been mentioned. If you'd like to hear your news, share it with us on Instagram, e makesnews or via email. She makes news at.