A Gippsland dairy farmer recognised as an advocate for mental health and wellbeing is the subject of an Archibald Prize entry.
Joe Meggetto, of Warragul, is being painted by Kerrie Anne Rawson for the prestigious portrait competition.
Kerrie became interested in Joe after she learned about his history of speaking openly about his own mental health challenges and assisting other people.
Joe has been recognised for his advocacy about wellbeing and looking after your mental health by his local council with a 2020 Australia Day Medal, has spoken publicly at events organised by Burra Foods, Beyond Blue, South Gippsland Dairy Expo, Gippsland Jersey, Dairy Australia and Tobin Bros Funerals. He has also helped individuals in the dairy industry and his local community.
His own journey to recognising how his struggles with mental health impacted on his life, and that of his loved ones, was fraught and long. These days he is on regular medication and conscious of what creates mental health challenges for him.
“I talk about mental health for my own and others’ wellbeing,” Joe said.
The most important parts of his life remain his own wellbeing, his family — Michelle and their three sons — and his farm, in that order.
Rather than overload himself with responsibility, Joe has put down his hand when it comes to community events and activities. These days his only off-farm focus is the junior football club, where his three sons play.
“Talking with people is good for your marriage, your workplace and other relationships you have with people,” Joe said.
“We all need to continue the conversation about mental health and the importance of reaching out to and supporting each other, being strong enough to take that step to reach out.
“The conversation is out there and more people are becoming comfortable about reaching out.
“At the moment, I’m just happy to be at home — being responsible on my farm and in my home is really important.”
In the past two years of the pandemic, Joe realised how much he enjoyed having Michelle working at home and their sons home-schooling.
“The kids were doing a lot of ag classes during school lockdown,” he said.
As part of his wellbeing journey, last year Joe took stock of why he was farming and what he wanted to achieve. It led him to upgrade the milking shed to be a better place to work.
“Building a new calf shed a couple of years ago has really helped my work,” Joe said.
“I decided the dairy shed needed upgrading, I wanted to get cup removers from Gippsland Dairy Centre — I’ve always liked their cup removers.”
The discussion led to him thinking about other upgrades for his milking plant.
It now has new stall gates, new automatic cup removers, a new vacuum pump, a new hot water service and the capacity has increased from 15-a-side to 30 double-up. The shed was also rewired. These improvements have made milking easier.
Joe’s also had an excellent harvest season. He harvested 900 tonnes of pit silage, plus 350 rolls of silage and 400 rolls of hay. It’s all been put aside for future needs.
In January, Joe opened up a pit of silage harvested in spring 2019.
“We’ve had two good years, and I hadn’t used the 2019 silage because I didn’t need it.
“The season’s worked out well for us. I could be milking more cows, but I prefer to be understocked and harvest the extra fodder.”
He’s milking 180 cows, with 30 fresh cows coming into the herd, and 70 cows still to calve. This year, between autumn and spring, he’ll have 52 heifers come into the herd.
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FUNDAMENTAL CHANGE NEEDED
In November 2019, Joe Meggetto was invited to the launch of the interim report into the Victorian Government’s Royal Commission into Victoria’s Mental Health System. The final report was tabled in parliament in February 2021.
There are 65 recommendations for fundamental change in the final report, and nine recommendations in the interim report.
The 10-year vision is supposed to be focused on a community-led, integrated approach to delivering mental health and wellbeing help and support.
A key recommendation from the royal commission’s report was to establish dozens of adult, youth and child focused mental health services, enabling people to access support close to home.
In May 2021, the Victorian Government committed $3.8 billion to reform initiatives, raising more than $800 million annually from a new tax on businesses, dedicated to funding the mental health system.
The new Mental Health and Wellbeing Surcharge of 0.5 per cent came into effect on January 1, 2022, and is applicable to businesses paying Victorian taxable wages and an Australian wage commitment exceeding $10 million. An additional 0.5 per cent surcharge is applicable if a business’s wages bill exceeds $100 million.
An initial $264 million was allocated to build six new facilities — at Benalla, Brimbank, Frankston, Greater Geelong, the Latrobe Valley and Whittlesea — by the end of 2022. At this stage, it looks like they will be open by mid-2023.
About $950 million was committed towards 22 mental health and wellbeing services, and $206 million to increase the workforce of qualified nurses, doctors and allied health workers.
If Joe Meggetto wasn’t a dairy farmer — or decided to retire from dairy farming — he said he would commit himself to seeing reform in the mental health and wellbeing sector.
In particular, he believes there needs to be a specific model of care for people in the agriculture industry.
It comes from his own lived experience, including trying to find a GP who understood modern-day farming.
“I strongly believe agriculture needs to have mental health support people in place who understand the industry,” Joe said.
“People feeling in crisis need to be able to reach out to people who know what is going on in agriculture, and be confident the people who talk to the person in need understands their stresses.
“If I gave up dairy farming tomorrow, I’d pursue something like this.
“The dairy industry needs support workers in place who understand mental health and the industry they work in.”
Joe said it was important to question geographically where and into what health services the money raised from the dedicated surcharge is being allocated.
The National Rural Health Alliance (NRHA) recommends help from mental health and wellbeing services should be available at the individual, group and population level.
The NRHA states that providing help for people who were self-harming with non-lethal acts or ideating about suicide, will reduce the likelihood of suicide by any means.
The age groups with the highest suicide rates in Australia are 35-44 years, 45-54 years and people aged 85 years and over. The greatest increase in rates of suicide is being noted in people aged 85 years and over, and people aged 15-24 years old.
Alcohol dependence, depression and anxiety were commonly connected to suicide attempts by youth and middle-aged people. Physical trauma, pain and illness were commonly connected to suicide attempts by elderly people.
Data from the Victorian Coroner’s Court indicates men are three times more likely than women to be counted as a death by suicide.
According to a 2021 report from the NRHA, in NSW and the Northern Territory the number of people who died from suicide was double outside the capital cities.