26 NEWS SATURDAY NOVEMBER 28 2015 GEELONGADVERTISER.COM.AU

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CHEERS FELLAS: The Gentlemen of Geelong organising team Mick Kramer Andrew Morrison, David Sharp and Greg Cracknell enjoy a drink. Picture: ALISON WYND

The annual event, now in its 12thyear, began with a handful of farm-ers meeting for lunch “just beforeChristmas” at the Gold DiggersHotel, another founding memberDavid Sharp said.

“Blokes are pretty hopeless atorganising themselves, it’s usuallythe girls who do this,’’ Mr Sharp said.“Men started inviting their friendsand it grew.”

Discussions between the men atthe lunches would turn to marriagebreakdowns and suicide and the

Project targets stigma of farmers’ higher suicide riskTHE Ripple Effect project isgeared towards changing theway farmers think aboutmental health, according toNational Centre for FarmerHealth director Sue Brumby,pictured left.

“People who have had anexperience of suicide — theymay have been bereaved or

cared for someone — have ahigher risk of suicide them-selves,’’ Ms Brumby said. “Butthere is a stigma around thatand people don’t talk about itand so the ripples are verynegative.”

The Ripple Effect aims tochange the effect to a positiveby telling people’s stories.

Farmers provide messagesof what has helped them,what they have learned orwhat actions they can take toimprove their own health andwellbeing.

The postcards are anony-mous and postage is prepaid.

They will be featured onthe Ripple Effect website from

April or May next year. Farmers, as an occu-

pational group, have a suiciderate twice the general popu-lation, according to the Cen-tre.

Ms Brumby said some ofthe factors contributing to thesuicide rate include isolation,compounded often by slow in-

ternet connections; the work-place and the home being theone and same; and the relent-less 24/7 nature of farming.

To request a postcard go totherippleeffect.com.au orphone the National Centrefor Farmer Health on (03)5551 8533.

MARGARET LINLEY

Men’s show of strengthMEN walked away from theirtractors and desks yesterday in ashow of support for men’s mentalhealth.

More than 170 members of theGentlemen of Geelong gathered forthe group’s annual event at FlyingBrick Cider House in Wallington forlunch and a chance to talk.

And, while the event might ap-pear to be just “a day on the turps”,organisers said it was so much morewith funds raised going to the Na-tional Centre for Farmer Healthy,Headspace Geelong, Lifeline andMovember.

One of the founding group mem-bers, Mick Kramer, said the group’sorigins had been “tongue in cheek”.

“The original idea was that blokescould have one day a year (to be so-cial with each other) because theirwives were having one day a week,’’Mr Kramer said. “We thought wecould justify one day a year to get offour tractors.”

focus shifted to how the groupmembers could support each other.

“The underlying thing of it is toshow our support, make a day of itand put our fundraising support tomen’s health,” said Mr Sharp, whohas experienced the pain of losing aclose mate to suicide.

The message coming from thegroup, according to Mr Kramer, isthat men need to prioritise theirhealth and talk.

“We want them to know they canlet someone know either when theyare struggling or when someone elseis struggling, Mr Kramer said.

“We have to keep remindingeach other that we have to keeplooking out for each other.

“Blokes and families that havegood mental health probably don’thave domestic violence issues.’’

Veteran of a decade of annuallunches, Tim Lamb of Stonehavensaid the event provided the reasonfor men to have conversations with

each other about their health thatotherwise “no one talks about”.

“It gets us talking,” the farmingcontractor said. “It’s amazing howmany issues there are once you gettalking.”

By having a men’s only event, thetalk flowed more easily, according toQuambatook’s Greg Knight. “Menfeel more comfortable talking tomen, that’s why things like men’ssheds work,” he said.

Gentlemen of Geelong luncheshave attracted guest speakers,including GPs and Lifeline repre-sentatives. Yesterday the director ofthe National Centre for FarmerHealth, Sue Brumby, spoke of a pro-gram that encouraged farmers toshare their personal stories througha postcard initiative. Last year’sevent raised $20,000 with a similaramount expected this year.

FIND OUT WHAT THEY HAD TO SAY: Pages 58, 59

MargaretLINLEYmargaret.linley@news.com.au

Gentlemen of Geelong guest speaker Sue Brumby with Andrew Morrison.