June is Men’s Mental Health Awareness Month, and a farm-focused mental health initiative has identified four main factors that adversely affect male producers’ mental well-being.
Depopulation
AgKnow, which provides support for farmers, ranchers, their families and other members of the agricultural community, says the loss of animals, be it disease or environmental effects such as weather, is a major stressor.
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“That is something unique to farming that doesn’t really happen in other industries, and our mental health system does not really know how to handle that,” said Linda Hunt, a seasoned farmer and program director with AgKnow.
“So it’s building the capacity of our health care workers, our public health people and counsellors. Identifying depopulation events that is a crisis that needs mental health support.”
Transition
Many farms include multi-generational families, and so farm transition becomes a huge stressor on how an agricultural legacy will be continued.
Navigating relationships between multiple generations with often very few outside employees can weaken the roots of the family tree.
Business models and regulations can change in a heartbeat, making it harder for older generations to keep up with the times.
“Our farmers are getting older, so there are a lot more farms in that sunset ‘how are we going to retire and move this onto the next generation?’ than the ones just starting up,” said Hunt.
“The way our economy and the price of land to get into farming has changed, it’s really difficult for the younger generation to buy in and get in. There are huge challenges in the industry, and it’s causing extreme amounts of stress in the rural communities.”
Seasonal pressure
The labour intensive nature of agriculture has its own challenges when it comes to raising a family in often isolating situations and tight time frames.
Families may need mental health support in their own communities rather than travelling to urban centres.
“Busiest months in school are when you are getting them in there in September and October, right in the middle of harvest. It’s a challenge for farming families to balance our busiest time with the rest of society. What is unique about Alberta and Canadian farmers is the further north you go, the shorter and tighter intense periods are,” said Hunt.
“Harvest is more compact. The further north, the less and less time you have to get the crop in and off. The weather gets more intense too for calving and livestock operations. The overhead gets higher, too, because you are not in a climate that allows us to share equipment. Everyone has to have a combine, everyone has to have a truck and pieces of equipment. If you miss a day or two, it can cost you hundreds of thousands of dollars. There is a lot of pressure in those high intense seasons.”
Lack of suicide resources
Many resources are already available for suicide prevention, such as the Centre for Suicide Prevention and the Resource Centre for Suicide Prevention, but AgKnow says these resources are still not finding their way to small rural communities.
Research has found that suicide rates are noticeably higher in farming communities than urban centres, largely due to rural isolation and easier access to firearms.
“What we are finding is that every in-community event that we do, talking about mental health and the resources that are available, the feedback we get is around suicide. We find there is an undercurrent of grief around rural communities around that topic,” said Hunt.
“I think you would be very hard pressed to find somebody who lives rural and in the farming community who hasn’t been impacted by suicide, it’s that common. There’s an awkward silence, a lot of people get triggered when we talk about suicide prevention and the things we are piloting. We have to work on the stigma and reach out to the community to provide support and showcase the value of mental supports.”
Hunt said mental health professionals need to acknowledge that there is not a “one size fits all” approach to meeting agricultural producers’ mental health needs.
“We are taking a real farmer approach, trying to be realistic. I’m a farmer and this is made by the farmers for the farmers initiative,” she said.
“We are finding the strategies that actually work for us. Breathing and yoga is great, but maybe not in the middle of harvest.”
Nineteen farm-focused therapists have joined the AgKnow network. Click here to access AgKnow’s mental health resources.
