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What We Do
The DPJ Foundation is a Welsh mental health charity to support those in agriculture and rural communities with mental health problems.
The DPJ Foundation is a Welsh mental health charity to support those in agriculture and rural communities with mental health problems.
The Foundation was set up in Pembrokeshire in July 2016 following the death of Daniel Picton-Jones. Daniel’s suicide rocked the community, his wife Emma realised very quickly the lack of support that was available for those suffering with poor mental health in rural communities. It was announced at Daniel’s funeral that a fund would be set up that would provide support to those, like Daniel, who were suffering from poor mental health. It became clear that there was a lack of awareness around mental health, everyone had been touched by suicide but very little was being done to combat the issue.
Daniel was an agricultural contractor and was well-liked and known throughout the community. His strong ties with the agricultural sector coupled with Emma being a farmer’s daughter made this an obvious route for targeting support. It also became clear that agriculture carried the highest rate of suicide, yet little was being done to help this. Emma has used Daniel as a basis for everything the foundation has gone forward to do. Daniel was a quiet character with lots of love and care for those around him, he would hate the idea of anyone suffering or feeling the way he did. In his name The DPJ Foundation is using Daniel’s story to help others.
There are three main strands to our service: Support through specific local counselling, Awareness through social media discussing mental health, Mental Health Awareness we offer a bespoke training package to help
Share the load is our 24/7 confidential counselling referral service which operates specifically for those who work in agriculture. This was set up because of the long waiting times associated with counselling and the difficulty in accessing support. We have over 30 Samaritans trained volunteers who run the call line and text service. Calls to our service are completely confidential.
To date, we have supported over 500 farmers across Wales.
We provide the amount of sessions needed for the individual – this is not limited.
We use all social media and event talks to spread awareness and get people talking about mental health. With over 15,000 followers on Facebook, nearly 3,000 on Twitter and over 4,500 on Instagram. We find it the quickest and most effective way to communicate our daily messages of support and information regarding mental health.
Through TV, radio and our face-to-face event talks, our message has been spread to over 14 million people to date!
TV includes: Pride of Britain, Countryfile, BBC News, National News, Ffermio.
The idea around mental health awareness and first aid is to give the community the ability to support each other and be confident in spotting the signs of poor mental health, knowing how to help someone who is struggling and signposting onwards.
We provide Mental Health Awareness Training – a bespoke training package.
