Lumen Spring 2021 - Flipbook - Page 40
“Simon was from a farming background and
used to come down to Adelaide on the weekends,”
Stephanie said. “He used to tell me that the best
part about working for yourself on the farm was
that you could take time off whenever you want,
but the most time he has ever spent away from
the farm since we met is those weeks when he was
coming down to Adelaide when we were
first dating.”
Stephanie was a couple of years into her Arts
degree before she focused on psychology as her
chosen career path – one that would provide
work opportunities in the regions. She completed
a Bachelor of Health Sciences (Honours in
Psychology) at the University of Adelaide, and
then went on to complete a Master of Psychology
(Clinical) at Flinders University.
“I wasn’t sure what I wanted to do when I started
university and tried a number of different subjects
in the first year of my Arts degree. University
gave me the flexibility to expand my knowledge,
and the options to work out what interested me.”
During her Master’s degree, Stephanie undertook
a placement in Clare with what was then the Midnorth Division of Rural Medicine (now Country
and Outback Health). She was offered a role there
after graduation and worked with the service as a
rural clinical psychologist for seven years.
“Working in a rural health service allowed me to
work with a wide range of clients – from kids right
through to older adults, as there is often no other
specialist services available to refer them on to.”
Today, Stephanie and Simon are raising their
three young sons on the family’s sheep and
cropping farm at World’s End in the mid-north of
SA near Burra. Recognising that she had a unique
perspective as a clinical psychologist, as well as
a farmer, Stephanie started her own business –
Cultivate Psychology – in 2019.
“We’d been through several years of drought,
so I had lived experience of the pressures and
ongoing stress experienced by rural and farming
communities.”
While the need for mental health support in rural
areas has always been there, a growing awareness
of the warning signs and the support available,
as well as external pressures such as drought,
floods and bushfires, has increased the need. The
constant challenge of not having enough formal
services to provide mental health support in
country areas exacerbates the problem.
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THE UNIVERSITY OF ADELAIDE
Stephanie said the impact of COVID-19 provided
different challenges.
“Rural communities were possibly a little
more protected from some of the impacts
of the COVID-19 pandemic than people in
metropolitan areas. Farmers are used to being
isolated and having a bit more space, and perhaps
are better equipped to deal with uncertainties and
adapting to change.”
One of the main effects has been on community
support networks such as local sporting clubs
and other social groups. As founder of the
Goyder Country Women's Association branch
in 2018, Stephanie knows the importance of
informal support networks that create a sense
of connection and community to individual
wellbeing.
“That’s often the main source of social
connection in rural communities, so when people
realised sports had been cancelled for the year,
that had a big impact.”
Stephanie has also taken a community-driven
approach when it comes to providing mental
health support for the rural sector. She wants to
equip people with simple strategies to manage
stress and adversity every day, so that when crisis
hits or the stresses build up, they already have the
toolkit to cope better on a day-to-day level.
“I’m focussing on a preventative approach,
building skills from the bottom up, rather than
just trying to meet the need at the pointy end.
It’s important to find ways to strengthen both
community resilience and to help people to look
after their individual wellbeing.”
Winning the Agrifutures SA Rural Women’s
Award in March 2020 has allowed Stephanie
to kick-start her ACTforAg program. Based on
Acceptance and Commitment Training concepts,
it seeks to provide farmers and rural communities
with the resilience and flexibility to adapt to
challenges outside their control.
“The Award included a $10,000 bursary
from Westpac which enabled me to develop a
structured pilot program of three 90-minute
online sessions supported by Country SA
Primary Health Network.”
The pilot program was well received and
Stephanie has been adapting and further
developing the program into shorter sessions
which can be delivered either face to face or via
Zoom, complemented by a toolkit of resources
