Member Spotlight: Nicky Stanley-Clarke

Tell us about yourself and why you decided to become a Member of the Network.

I am registered social worker and a senior lecturer in the School of Social Work at Massey University. I have a background as a social worker working in several statutory social service settings including health (mental health), child protection and young justice. I have been teaching social policy and clinical social work at Massey University since 2006.

As a social work academic, I am interested in doing research that matters, where the findings can be translated into real outcomes that make a difference for communities in Aotearoa NZ. I decided to become a member of the network to be more engaged in conversations impacting health in rural communities. I live in a rural community on a small lifestyle holding, my husband works in the dairy sector and our daughters attend a rural school. We are part of the rural sector.

I began exploring rural mental health and farmer wellbeing in 2015 during the dairy crisis. Little was known about farmer wellbeing at the time, and I was interested in knowing how farmer stress impacted all members of the farming household. For the last 4 years I have been part of a team of researchers at Massey and Lincoln University who have been exploring young farmer mental health and wellbeing.

What are some of the key challenges or opportunities you’re seeing in rural health right now, and how is you/your team are addressing them?

Over the years I have learned that young farmers are more open to talking about mental health than previous generations and are always willing to lend a hand to support others. However, they are still very reluctant to admit when they need help and often do not reach out for mental health support when they need it.

Our research is currently focused on supporting the mental health of agricultural students at both Massey and Lincoln Universities. This year we are working on a project to explore some of the mental health challenges agricultural students face when they undertake practical work as part of their degrees. We want to use the findings of our research to ensure students feel safe and supported during their farming practical work experience. We also want to educate and support young farmers in relation to mental health literacy and continue to work to destigmatise help seeking amongst farming communities. We hope that these young people will take what they learn back to rural communities leading to wider improved mental health outcomes.

Is there a particular project, initiative, or success story you’d like to share that others in the sector might find inspiring or useful?

Our research team have been instrumental in the development and evaluation of WellMates. WellMates is a peer-led mental education programme delivered to agricultural students at both Massey and Lincoln Universities. First developed as an in-person programme at Lincoln University, through our research we have demonstrated the efficacy of the programme, updated it in response to our research findings and developed it into an online programme for students at Massey. We have published several articles related to this research:

Knook, J., Stanley-Clarke, N., Maris, R., Hay, A., Andrews, C., & Winder, L. (2025). A Mixed Methods Assessment of an Online Mental Health and Resilience Program for Agricultural Sector Students. Journal of Agromedicine, 30(1), 95-104.
Hay, A., Stanley-Clarke, N., Winder, L., Maris, R., Andrews, C., & Knook, J. (2024). Benefits for peer educators in delivering wellbeing education to agricultural students. Health Education Journal, 00178969241297549.
Winder, L., Stanley-Clarke, N., Maris, R., Hay, A., & Knook, J. (2024). Wellbeing education increases skills and knowledge among tertiary students in the agricultural sector: insights from a mixed methods study. The Journal of Agricultural Education and Extension, 1-17.
Stanley-Clarke, N., Hay, A., Marris, R., Ryan, A., Knook, J., & Winder, L. (2024). Optimism bias as a barrier to accessing mental health support amongst tertiary students. Higher Education Research and Development, 1-13. doi:10.1080/07294360.2024.2339838
Hay, A., Stanley-Clarke, N., Maris, R., Winder, L., & Knook, J. (2024). Building connections in health and wellbeing education: Qualitative findings of a study with New Zealand agricultural students. Health Education Journal, 83(2), 161-171. doi:10.1177/00178969231225089

Here are a few media articles talking about WellMates:

https://research.lincoln.ac.nz/updates/building-resilience-and-wellbeing-in-the-next-generation-of-farmers

https://www.massey.ac.nz/about/news/strengthening-resilience-in-young-adults-entering-the-rural-sector/

https://www.thepress.co.nz/nz-news/350025866/cultivating-mental-resilience-young-farmers

What would you like other members or readers to know—whether it’s a piece of advice, something unexpected about your work, or how they can connect with you?

A key research learning for us has been the crucial role mothers (or other maternal figures) play in supporting the mental health and wellbeing of young farmers. This is particularly important as young people leave home and transition into early adulthood. We have consistently been told by our research participants that their mum’s (or mum equivalents) are the person they reach out to first when times are tough and that their mum’s play a very important role supporting and talking with them about their mental health. We recognise that the role of rural mum’s and their equivalents often goes unrecognised and as such we want to do more research exploring how we can better support the mental health and wellbeing of rural women as carers and mental health educators in rural communities.

We are always interested in hearing from others interested in supporting and researching mental health in farming communities including opportunities to support existing initiatives, build connections and undertake future research.