Out in the open: Mental Health Month is growing awareness
Out in the open: Mental Health Month is growing awareness
Mental health challenges in agriculture are no longer being faced in silence or in the shadows.
Over the past year, the Minnesota Department of Agriculture (MDA) dedicated more than 6,000 hours via the Farm Advocate program, hosted 536 one-on-one sessions and answered 314 calls through the Minnesota Farm & Rural Helpline. With three months remaining in MDA’s fiscal year, the helpline is projected to exceed 400 calls.
According to MDA, there could be multiple reasons behind the increased outreach.
“What my insight is to this is that we don’t know if the increase is because more people are struggling which I think could be true right now, or if more people are becoming familiar with the fact the helpline exists,” said Meg Moynihan, a farmer and senior MDA advisor, said. “There are things that we can do to get you to be OK. We want to get you back to enjoying life and being productive and farming or being with your family and doing all those things that are meaningful to you.”
MDA continues its focus on increasing program awareness and partnerships with organizations in the state, including the Minnesota Soybean Growers Association and the Center of Rural Policy and Development. With 12 farm advocates across the state, MDA is one of the few states with the resources to help farmers struggling with their mental health.
“I think that the first thing is to remove the mystery and the scariness from it, which is probably the most important thing we can do to help people,” said Marnie Werner of the Center of Rural Policy and Development.. “Just normalizing that there is a problem is the biggest thing to stop making people feel shamed or guilty for having a mental illness.”
Team effort
As awareness grows, more individuals are becoming comfortable reaching out for assistance. For Lincoln County soybean producer Bob Worth this issue is deeply personal and a conversation that needs to happen, however uncomfortable it may be.
“Mental health is no different than any other disease you can have,” said Worth, a MSGA director who also sits on the American Soybean Association. “Because it is a disease, it is something that can be cured with medication or therapy. People have to start talking about it and saying that it is OK to talk about it.”
MSGA Director Bob Worth is one of the nation’s leading farmer mental health advocates.
Worth experienced severe depression during the 1980s farm crisis and saw firsthand how it impacted not only himself but his entire family and farming operation.
“When you talk about a farmer, 99% of the time you are talking about a farm family. Every single one of the members of that farm family are susceptible to depression, anxiety and suicide. You work as a team,” Worth said. “When one member is not quite right, you need to get help.”
Werner echoes that perspective and emphasized the broader impact of farm families in relation to rural mental health. Farm families are interconnected in myriad ways.
“You have to understand that the wife is a farmer, too, the son is a farmer, the daughter is a farmer. They are all living in the same situation together and everybody is affected,” Werner said. “It’s not just one person in the family that is affected, it’s everyone.”
Expanding the focus from one individual to entire families has gained traction with program outreach and acceptance across rural communities.
Worth credits his recovery of intervention to his wife, Gail.
“I was just extremely lucky that my wife made me go to the doctor, and I had a brand-new doctor right out of school, and they did a lot of work with mental health,” Worth said.
Werner has been researching mental health in rural areas for over 10 years.
“The growing awareness is really heartening,” said Werner. “More people are getting very interested in it, they are just nervous to talk about it out loud.”
If you or someone you know in agriculture is struggling, Minnesota’s mental health resources include:
- Minnesota Farm & Rural Helpline: 833-600-2670
- Text: FARMSTRESS to 898211
- National crisis line: 988
“We are making some progress, but we have a long way to go,” Worth said. “The quicker you get help, the quicker you’ll feel better and the whole family will feel better.”
While MSGA is advocating in St. Paul and Washington, D.C., for more rural mental health services, the Minnesota Soybean Research & Promotion Council, through the soy checkoff, is partnering with MDA on an upcoming mental health awareness campaign.
