At our annual Norfolk meeting last month Helen Bibby and Helen Hooks, as our Ambassadors, were invited to meet our Chair of Trustees – and having the name ‘Helen’ isn’t a pre-requisite.
Receiving recognition
Both Helen Bibby and Helen Hooks, have, over the years, raised a great amount of awareness of YANA and mental health and continue to remain as committed to the cause as ever.
We invited them to receive the recognition for this from our Chair of Trustees, Tom Streeter on the 15th October 2024.
Emma Haley, Charity Director explained “being a YANA Ambassador is an integral role that seeks to raise awareness of our work and supports the charity in general.
Embracing the training and promotion of good mental health, means they are fully equipped to share our messages, garner interest, and provide support.”
Our Ambassadors and what this means to them
Helen Bibby, worked within YANA for many years and saw it evolve from being a project under The Clan Trust delivering mental health support and counselling in Norfolk, to becoming a registered charity that delivered mental health training and suicide prevention work. Helen was one of the first to undertake Mental Health First Aid training in 2018 and led the way for 100’s more to be offered funded places on this course.
Having been invited to take up the role of Ambassador in 2021, our Charity Director was keen to acknowledge this publicly with due recognition being given.
When asked what being an Ambassador means to her, Helen explained “it is important to me as I have worked in the agriculture sector for over 30 years in different roles, so am known to a lot of people through my connection to YANA and other professional organisations in the agricultural community.
Being an Ambassador makes it easier to be able to spread the word about all the good things YANA are doing to support agriculture.”
Helen Bibby explained her motivation for the continued support she offers. “Having personally seen the devastating effect a suicide has on family and friends, anything that can be done to help stop or reduce this happening is important.” She firmly believes that ” YANA is a key professional and confidential organisation that can help with this.”
We asked Helen what she wants people to know when talking to them for the first time.
Her response is a great message. Helen said “It is important that people understand the breadth of support that YANA provide including the funded counselling, mental health first aid courses, as well as the suicide prevention programme”.
Helen Hooks, manages a number of pig farms at BQP Pilgrims Europe, spending much of her time working with farmers and their teams. Helen has worked in the industry for 30 years.
Helen said: “I’ve always wanted to help others and be there for people in their time of need.
“Following on from my own personal experiences, I decided to train as a Mental Health First Aider in 2022 so I could help others. From there I have become more involved with YANA and helping my farmers to understand mental health.”
Helen can often be seen on a YANA stand at agricultural shows, on social media, and at training. She is currently raising money for YANA through calendars she has produced with her own photography.
When asked what being an Ambassador means to her Helen told us “it makes me feel like I’m giving something back, it was a surprise to be invited to take the role, but I was really happy because it means that what I am doing is making a difference. I think the work YANA does is so important and I know how much it has helped so many people, but we all need to do our bit.”
“The more we talk, the more improvement we’ll see, which will only be a great thing for this industry and people in general.”
Can you help too?
There are many ways you can help which are outlined below. Firstly we encourage you to get in touch so we can have a chat to learn more about you and how we can work together.
Ways you can help include:
- Understand mental health and develop confidence to have conversations by attending mental health training
- Stick up for rural mental health with our vehicle and window stickers
- Volunteer your skills and time, email volunteer@yanahelp.org
- Request our literature to display or use for reference
- Know the signs and symptoms of poor mental health
- Fundraise for YANA to help us maintain the levels of funded training and counselling available, email admin@yanahelp.org
- Know what we do so that you can encourage people to access the help available
