It was a typical Tuesday morning for SA sheep producer and clinical psychologist Steph Schmidt. She had dropped her sons Ted, 8, Angus, 5, and Darcy, 2, at school and childcare in nearby Burra and was back in the office at their World’s End farm, settling into a day of Zoom meetings.

Then, the harried phone call from her husband Simon: “Quick, I need a hand in the yards.”

As she grabbed her hat, Steph reflected how other rural women also wear many hats: wife, mother, producer and often, off-farm business owner or employee.

Empowering rural women to let go of this struggle and embrace the juggle of farm, family and life is at the heart of ACT for Ag, the platform Steph created in 2020 to build the resilience and wellbeing of producers, farming families and rural communities.

She combines her psychological knowledge together with lived experience of the challenges of farming life to provide accessible, easy-to-understand strategies to improve health and wellbeing for producers and farming families.

“In farming and family life, I’ve learnt first-hand just how important it is to be flexible and adaptive to challenging situations,” Steph said.

“With increasing challenges facing the agricultural sector and wider community, there’s an increased need for individuals, businesses and communities to learn vital skills and develop psychological flexibility, build gratitude, and enhance relationships through value driven action.

“Every day we navigate the choices we make. When we’re stuck in autopilot it can feel like much of life is out of our control, but ACT for Ag gives you the skills to keep yourself on track, even when the road gets rocky.” 

Through a combination of online guides, workshops and a podcast, the program is built on relatable concepts. For example, Steph encourages people to approach ACT for Ag as a new piece of machinery which needs to be tested out, and provides a tool for ‘drafting’ tough thoughts.

Living the juggle

Running a sheep and cropping business on farms spread 210km apart between World’s End and the Mallee wasn’t where Steph saw her life going when she was growing up in suburban Adelaide.

A chance meeting with Simon at a ‘country pub in the city’ when she was 19 took her life in a new direction.

“I was studying International Studies and applying for an overseas exchange when we met – I remember thinking, ‘how will I find work in the country’?”

Steph switched to study Psychology followed by a Masters in Clinical Psychology.

She focused on rural men’s wellbeing and social support for her Honours Thesis in 2009, against the backdrop of the Millennium Drought.

“There was a lack of comparable mental health services for rural women, and little focus on the importance of relationships in supporting rural resilience,” Steph said.

This was reinforced when she moved to the farm in 2012 and worked locally as a clinical psychologist. Shortage of services and long waits for appointments was intensified by an apparent reluctance for rural men and women to ‘be seen’ accessing mental health support.

In 2018, after Simon and Steph had just purchased two properties, they were hit with the severest drought on record.

“This gave me a first-hand experience of the stress and pressure of drought,” Steph said.

“There was a strong focus on mental health awareness, but I felt there was a gap in preventative approaches – providing people with accessible tools to improve their wellbeing, even during tough times.”

It planted the seed for ACT for Ag – a project which saw Steph go on to win the 2020 SA AgriFutures Rural Women’s Award and the 2021 Safework SA Augusta Zadow Award.

Tools for producers

Steph built on ACT for Ag this year with the launch of the Navigate for Her community to recognise the ‘invisibility’ of rural women’s mental health and the mental load many rural women carry.

“Farming women not only face the same challenges as their male counterparts, but also bear the ‘mother-load’ of supporting their children, their husband, juggling life commitments and so on.”

Steph points to research which found that female producers experience more psychological distress than male producers*.

Navigate for Her provides a safe space to connect with other rural women, learn practical, evidence-based tools for manage stress and uncertainty, and find joy in the little moments.

Four ways to embrace the juggle

On the eve of International Rural Women’s Day, SA sheep producer and clinical psychologist Steph Schmidt of ACT for Ag has four practical steps rural women can take to ‘let go of the struggle and embrace the juggle of farm, family and life’.

1. Don’t forget to look after yourself

“I developed Postnatal Depression after the birth of both my first and third sons, and through this, I continue to learn the importance of looking after myself to be able to look after those around me,” Steph said.

“Repeat after me – it’s ok and necessary to look after myself.”

It doesn’t need to be complicated – Steph’s daily self-care looks like this:

• wake up early and enjoy a cup of warm lemon water (which is often cold thanks to three busy boys)
• spend a few minutes journaling
• some form of movement – ideally a few minutes of yoga, but often substituted with kicking a footy around with her sons.

“It’s important to let yourself off the hook if things don’t go to plan – if you get called down to help in the yards, just look at it as being your daily exercise.”

2. Invest time in relationships

The most important assets in our farms and rural communities are the people – so relationships are critical, Steph said.

“The drought could have pushed Simon and I apart, but it actually brought us closer – we had to have some really big conversations as we navigated growing our business and our family.”

Steph and Simon make time to debrief about their day, substitute date nights for the more realistic ‘talk and drive’ around the farm, and acknowledge that yelling at each other in the sheep yards is ok, as long as you still have each other’s back.

3. Change your perspective

Steph said while farm life isn’t the same as city life, with no such thing as a ‘normal day’ and periods of stress and uncertainty, it’s important to recognise the positives.

“I love spending time on the farm with my husband and sons and enjoy the privilege of being able to work together as a family,” Steph said.

“If Simon worked in an office in the city, he might be home for dinner every night, but we wouldn’t have the opportunities we do to spend time as a family.”

4. Let go and be in the moment

“So often in farming life we can get swept up in general society’s assumptions and expectations of what work/life balance ‘should’ look like – but life on the farm looks different to regular life, and that’s ok,” Steph said.

She encouraged rural women to find what works for you and your family.

“I don’t think there is ever necessarily balance, but maybe we can find the flow, or even just find ways to enjoy life within the work that we need to do on the farm.”

Steph Schmidt was a presenter at the MLA-supported 2022 Thriving Women Conference.

(* Reference: Daghagh Yazd, Sahar & Wheeler, Sarah & Zuo, Alec. (2019). Key Risk Factors Affecting Farmers’ Mental Health: A Systematic Review. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health. 16. 4849. 10.3390/ijerph16234849.)