Terry
Kay, just how are rural people coping at the present time

Kay
Well, rural people are historically very stoic people but you know they have been doing it tough and not just for the last year but the last two or three years has been extremely difficult for some of our regional communities but they band together and there ever optimistic and at the moment you can feel the optimism around waiting for the season to break they think the seasons going to break very soon and so they never cease to amaze me how positive they seem to be.

Terry
How tough do your rural counsellors actually find it going out and speaking with people are obliviously themselves personally facing tough times?

Kay
Well some of them handle it better then others, and alot of them have been at it for a long time and they know how to look after themselves and handle that side of the job but it is depressing and it is day in, day out and some of the stories that their hearing and some of the things that they are seeing are quite drastic really.

Terry
Are there any particular measures which you immediately speak to people about when you actually find that they are facing tough times?

Kay
We do, obliviously once we work out what there current situation is we do whatever we can with whatever programs are available to them to work them through, whether it might be a grant application for Exceptional Circumstances or it might be farm help or just a referral or it might be just a consultation with a lender so we need to assess what the situation is first before we can actually take some steps forward to rectify the areas of their problems.

Terry
Do you find an outcome which is not just beneficial but people are comfortable with in most cases

Kay
Ah yes, although we are tending to see exceptional circumstances, that it is quite a difficult program and we are now starting to see the results of the have and the have nots, those that have received exceptional circumstances and the next-door neighbour may not have, and it might be just because exceptional circumstances  have been criticised from time to time for rewarding those that don’t prepare for events such as drought and so there is that creeping into our communities now of that have and have