The cost of living crisis is having a particularly devastating impact on rural communities, a leading mental health expert in Co Fermanagh has said.
With fuel prices soaring to record highs and a lack of public transport infrastructure, people around the county often rely on their cars to get to work or get around. Some petrol stations are now charging more than £2 per litre for diesel.
According to the clinical lead at the Aisling Centre in Enniskillen , more and more people locally are citing worries about making ends meet due to rising costs and it’s having a big effect on their mental health.
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“Suddenly in the space of a very short time there is a lot less money that would have been there for their household, and the families are suffering then as a result," John Bennett told Belfast Live.
“Rural areas are always going to be more affected by that. The great thing about these rural communities is that there is a certain amount of resilience there and they will always try to cope as best they can.
“But the rising costs are seriously compromising people’s ability to provide for their children, socially as well as putting food on the table.
“That ability affects our mood, of course it does. That huge increase in people coming to us locally is very directly linked to the financial difficulties people are having in rural areas here.
“With the restrictions that are currently being placed on people financially, that ability to have freedom in what we do and to have hope for the future is not as strong as what it was before.”
With cars being built into many people’s lives in rural areas, it can be a draining experience even going to fill up the car, John added.
“People that live here in these areas have the car built into their lives, whether it be going to the shops or bringing the kids to wherever they need to go.
“We have all the analysts who can measure the downturn and we will hear numbers every day about this, we see the petrol prices at the pump jump every 24 hours.
“The impact of that on people’s mental health is a slower thing but we are seeing it here every day in the people we work with.
“We serve people primarily here in Fermanagh and we see mostly people from rural areas who are affected by this every day.
“People here if they want to come in and see us, if they’re going to work or they are just going about their business, six months ago it wasn’t a worry for them to fill up their car, but now it is.
“Many people who want to come into us and deal with any issues they have, have to think twice because of the cost of getting to and from here.”
John warned that the rural families who may be struggling could see worse to come in the months ahead, with no end in sight for the current cost of living crisis. He said that the level of support for people in Co Fermanagh is often not at the same level as more urban areas.
“That’s what we hear from people every day, about services that have closed and smaller communities that just don’t have the same vibrancy as they had in the past. More often now they have to go more towards urban areas and that takes them away from where they feel that sense of belonging.
“My worry is that it’s just beginning to hit people. As we head towards the winter things start to wear us down a bit more.
“It’s beginning to take its toll but it’s in the months ahead that we will hugely see the impact of it.”
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