Television journalist turned farmer Matt Chisholm is embarking on a nationwide tour to spark a conversation on mental health and resilience in rural communities.
Matt Chisholm is raising awareness of mental health in rural areas. Photo: Rural Support Trust
Chisholm, who was recently named the inaugural ambassador for the Rural Support Trust, will share his story as part of the trust's Time Out Tour, kicking off in the Southland town of Otautau this Thursday.
A former host of TVNZ's Sunday programme and Survivor New Zealand, he's previously documented his struggles with depression and alcoholism in his book, Imposter, and two documentaries.
Chisholm told RNZ he hoped other people hearing about his experiences, and how he found a way through, would feel encouraged to seek help.
"I want to do this because I know that it works," he said.
"I've told my story a number of times now, and off the back of telling my yarn, I hear from other people who say that the 21-year-old farm worker has gone and caught up with a doctor, or the-53-year-old bloke's gone off and had some counseling.
"And that makes me feel really good. I'd rather people find happiness than struggle away in their own head."
Chisholm hoped the Time Out Tour would play a part in normalising mental health struggles, especially among rural communities.
"We know that rural folk don't fare well in mental health statistics," he said.
"Part of that is the type of people that we're dealing with as well - you know, tough, rural people, like those in the construction industry, hard working people who might struggle to open up and talk about their feelings, it's perhaps not seen as a very masculine thing to do."
"There's that classic saying, 'You help one person, you save one person'.
"Normalising this stuff is the key thing and then helping. I mean, what are we here for really, other than to make a contribution?"
Alongside his television work, Chisholm farms sheep and beef on a 29-hectare block at Chatto Creek, near Alexandra in Central Otago.
He said farming can be an isolating experience, and that can worsen mental distress for some people.
"A lot of people work alone, or work in silos, and certainly don't have those connections that a lot of people in cities will have, so that probably doesn't help.
"And maybe, you know, with the demise of the rugby club and the rural pub, people aren't connecting as much as they perhaps should.
"So, we can spend an awful lot of time talking to ourselves in our own heads, and I think that's where a lot of the problem is, for rural folk, or just for people who struggle a bit with the mental health in general, especially through tough times."
The 2022 Time Out Tour is the first of three annual tours Chisholm will front in partnership with Rural Support Trust.
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