COCHRANE— Looking to destigmatize the conversations surrounding mental health, the Do More Agricultural Foundation has launched a new iniative to support rural spaces.
The Do More Agriculture Foundation Community Fund initiative began accepting applications on Oct. 11.
Do More Ag is a national charity that focuses on educating and advocating for mental health in rural spaces with a focus on farmers and producers.
The need for mental health advocacy in rural areas is greatly needed, said executive director of the charity, Adelle Stewart.
There is a long list of academic research that indicates farmers, ranchers and other producers suffer from mental health disorders, and need mental health education, prevention strategies and supports, she said.
“The nature of the isolation of the type of work that goes into being in agriculture— We do a lot of our work alone, we live in remote areas, we can’t just walk our dogs down the street and say hello to somebody,” she said. “We’re very isolated that way.”
That isolation is also a barrier to accessing resources, she said.
Travelling several hours to get help or attend an appointment can be difficult, as the schedule of the work is often dictated by your circumstances.
If a rancher has a sick animal, or a farmer sees the sun for the first time after a stretch of rain, both can prevent a producer from leaving their farm for an appointment with a mental health professional.
Make hay while the sun shines, as the saying goes, she said.
Stewart noted there have been big advancements in virtual care, but the Internet remains unreliable in many isolated communities.
People in rural areas also deal with the stigma of mental health, especially when it comes to farming culture.
Agriculture, and the people in it, often uphold principles and values like hard work, resilience and a deep-rooted aversion to complaining.
Unfortunately, those same ideas can be barriers when it comes to seeking help for mental health support.
She said that the foundation often sees generational differences, with younger farmers experiencing higher levels of stress.
Changing technology and stigma from both within and outside of the industry are the culprits.
If you do not like farming, it is not as simple as just walking away from it like a normal job, Stewart noted.
“If you don’t like farming, you don’t get out of it. It’s not that easy as that, and we do need and rely on producers to feed the world,” she said.
Here in Alberta, roughly 38 per cent of the population lives in rural communities, and according to the Government of Alberta’s 2015 report Valuing Mental Health, those communities are drastically underserved in terms of mental health supports.
“Generally, accessing addiction and mental health services is challenging, especially in rural and remote areas. Frequently individuals travel long distances to hospital emergency departments, detox or services in other communities to get help – help that is scarce, costly and, at times, ineffective,” says the report. “As much as possible, individuals should be able to receive services in their homes and in their communities.”
The Alberta Suicide Prevention Strategy, a 2005 report compiled by Alberta Health Services, noted that the rate of suicides in rural communities was 18 per 100,000, while in urban centres is was 13.8 per 100,000.
The Community Fund launched by the Do More Agricultural Foundation is meant to help fight against that stigma by promoting and normalizing conversations about mental health.
“The Community Fund is to help decrease stigma, as well as build capacity for conversation at a grassroots level. We want to go to these rural areas and educate people about signs and symptoms of mental illness that they may not have known before, how to have conversations with somebody who might be struggling and how to prepare for that,” Stewart said.
The Community Fund is available to anyone who applies.
Community leaders, producers or farmers who wish to host a mental health workshop can apply for the grant. The foundation will help the community leader organize the training in their area.
The foundation helps to find a facilitator, provides all the funding and covers the expenses involved with setting up the training sessions.
“We just need the community leader to be like ‘hey community, here’s what’s happening, and here’s when and spread the word.’ We find that it reaches people at a better level when it’s coming from someone in the community as opposed to us swooping in,” she said. “It’s a local person, a face in the community saying ‘we’re going to bring this here, join us.’”
The workshops are two-day long, 12-hour training sessions focused on general mental health training developed by the Mental Health Commission of Canada.
The Do More Agriculture Foundation also hosts a half-day workshop focused on mental health in agriculture.
She noted that the foundation has seen a lot of progress in the battle against mental health stigma since its inception three years ago.
“We are seeing great gains in terms of the reduction of stigma. The term mental health is becoming commonplace and in more everyday conversation. It’s been very exciting to see that piece of it. We still have a lot of milestones to go, but we’re definitely seeing milestones being made in improvements on the stigma of mental health in ag.”
If you are interested in being a community leader, apply for the Community Fund at domore.ag/.
