“Life’s a dance you learn as you go,” so the song by John Michael Montgomery says. Life’s a struggle we battle as we go, I think that is the case for many of us at the moment.
There is a lot of emphasis lately, especially with RUOK day, on our mental health, a lot of talk and awareness and discussion about mental health; encouraging us to speak up and seek help and talk to professionals and talk to our mates.
I think we need to concentrate some of that emphasis on an awareness of services that may be driving people to that place of desperation. The financial pressure that owner operators, and drivers with families and most young families are under right now with the cost of living and the cost to live on the road, and the cost to live at home.
Trucking companies are disappearing every week, putting ever more people in financial stress.
This can cause physical health issues as well as mental, as we all tend to neglect our health in times of crisis. Simple lack of attention can mean that we don’t make time for healthy eating, exercise and a much more healthy lifestyle.
Where we used to spend more time with our families and friends, today we spend much more time with our electronics and this only exacerbates our other issues.
We need to start raising awareness of what other options are out there, where people need to go to get good financial advice for free, legitimate and basic advice for ordinary people.
We have so many wonderful organisations now for mental health and I think everybody knows where they can go and what’s available to them. Fabulous organisations like Healthy Heads in Trucks and Sheds and TradeMutts are doing amazing work but I think we also need to make sure there are other options available out there for the underlying root causes that can drive people to have the mental health problems in the first place.
Many people don’t know where they can go to get free financial advice, good solid financial advice, someone who can set them up for the future. I have been to some financial advisors and they are not living on the same wavelength as ordinary people who live paycheck to paycheck.
Skills like how to budget, save and invest and similar subjects should be in school curriculums so that they reflect life better.
If we taught life and business skills instead of algebra, people would come into the world knowing how to look after themselves, how to be independent and set up to face life. And how they can set themselves up so as that when they reach middle age in later life, they can look after themselves into their retirement.
As our population ages, especially our trucking population, I think we need to see this as a real problem. Maybe we need to lookout for ways to take care of them in all aspects of their life or our lives.
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Jacquelene Brotherton is a Director of Transport Women Australia Limited