Mental health program targets farmers, families

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This article was published 01/02/2022 (1509 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

A new program for farmers and their families is being praised for filling a critical gap in mental health.

The Manitoba Farmer Wellness program is in its final stages of development and looking for people to help deliver and support it. The service will provide one-on-one counselling sessions by professional counsellors with a background in agriculture to farmers and their families. Farmers and their immediate family members can access six free, one-hour confidential sessions.

To accommodate farmers’ unique schedules, it offers day, evening and weekend appointments and can be in person, by telephone or video chat depending on the farmer’s preference. Appointments will be available beginning in March.

The issue of mental health in farming and rural areas has been a topic of study for some time at the Centre for Critical Studies of Rural Mental Health at Brandon University.

Rachel Herron, Canada Research chair for rural and remote mental health based out of the university, said she could not speak specifically to the program, but lauded it for addressing gaps in delivering services to farmers and rural areas.

She could only speak about her work on a stakeholders report on mental health in men in southern Manitoba. However, she said during her research she noticed people wanted to talk about their mental health, but said they lacked spaces nearby where they would feel safe in doing so.

“One of the key messages is that mental health is lacking in rural areas. Generally, there is a lack of services within rural communities specifically related to mental health. People usually have to come into Brandon, or a larger centre to access services,” Herron said.

There would be mental health support workers that would travel to communities, but people couldn’t see them as often due to work constraints and other timing issues. As well, workers may not understand rural culture, making it difficult for services to be relevant and accessible. Workers have to understand the perspective of the individual.

Brandon used to have an office for Manitoba Farm, Rural and Northern Support Services, which was dedicated to offering support services for farmers and rural residents. Herron said before it closed and moved to Winnipeg, there were local volunteers on staff that had farming backgrounds who were trained to counsel people on the stress phone line.

“They could talk to people based on experience. Sometimes that is lacking in our provision in understanding relevance to farmers,” she said.

Affordability and time are other issues. Farming is a demanding occupation and often insurance doesn’t cover mental health.

This program helps fill those gaps, she said, as it embeds cultural relevance into the program. The program has been created to address the identified gap in the availability of counselling services for farmers, whatever stage of the journey they are at.

“Farmers have a demanding lifestyle, and stigma remains a barrier for some to reach out for help,” board member Gerry Friesen said.

The program is looking for donations so they can keep offering services. Any group or individual who works with farmers and is interested in financially supporting the Manitoba Farmer Wellness Program should contact them, said vice-chair Roberta Galbraith.

“We are working collaboratively with the agriculture community in our province to bring this program to fruition for the health and wellness of the industry.”

Anyone who is interested in booking an appointment with a counsellor, donating, applying to work as a counsellor, or learning more about the program can visit manitobafarmerwellness.ca.

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