Filling the gap in mental-health resources in rural communities
While farmers can experience a high rate of stress, anxiety and depression, 40 per cent report they feel uneasy getting professional help. istock.com
Farmers face social isolation, financial uncertainty and other pressures that can bring mental-health challenges, but they are also known for self-reliance and pride. Yet when it comes to getting help, they often lack access to local resources.
Now a Canadian organization is speaking out about the skyrocketing rates of stress, anxiety and depression in rural communities and the need to do something about it.
“We want to make the topic of mental illness approachable, acceptable and essential to talk about for people living in agricultural settings,” says Dave Richardson, co-founder and chair of the Stigma-Free Society (SFS).
“We want to make the topic of mental illness approachable, acceptable and essential to talk about for people living in agricultural settings. My message is, ‘It’s okay to not be okay, and you’re not alone. ”
A registered charity founded in Vancouver in 2016 that’s committed to eliminating all stigmas, especially surrounding mental illness, SFS provides support services, mental-health resource hubs and preventative education to the community. It has created an online Rural Mental Wellness Toolkit to help people outside of urban centres avoid stigma about mental-health issues.
Recent surveys by researchers at the University of Guelph found that farmers experienced higher rates of stress, anxiety, depression, emotional exhaustion – and were twice as likely to have thoughts of suicide – than the national average. However, 40 per cent reported they would feel uneasy getting professional help because of what people might think.
“It’s pride; it’s someone saying, ‘I’m strong; I can deal with getting up at five o’clock in the morning; I can deal with the risk of losing an entire year’s income on one storm,’” Mr. Richardson explains. Meanwhile, for those seeking help, “there’s a complete dearth of mental-health resources in rural communities.”
He would like to see scholarships in mental-health training available to people from rural areas who make a commitment to work there. “We need to get people who understand rural people. They’re different.”
SFS provides peer-support training for rural residents who can then create groups in their communities that are “a friendly and a safe place to go and talk,” says Mr. Richardson. Having grown up on a hobby farm in rural Manitoba and the fifth generation in a large family grain company, he speaks openly about his own challenges with depression and anxiety.
“My message is, ‘It’s okay to not be okay, and you’re not alone,’” he says.
The COVID-19 pandemic brought additional pressures for farmers, exacerbating isolation, increasing workloads and raising costs, he points out. “But if there’s a silver lining in the whole COVID issue, it’s that the whole world started realizing that it’s okay to talk about mental-health issues.”
The goal of SFS is to help rural residents across Canada and beyond with their mental-health challenges, indeed groups as far as Texas have asked the organization to partner with them. “We’re looking to take our message global,” Mr. Richardson adds.
To view this report on The Globe's website, visit globeandmail.com
To view the full report as it appeared in The Globe's print edition: Next-generation farming