Pearl Lorentzen
Lakeside Leader
Slave Lake and Grouard have community members who are part of the Rural Mental Health Network. There’s also now a Farm Mental Health Network in Alberta.
The Farm Network is open to “the whole farm except the cows, says Linda Hunt, with the network. “We don’t do therapy for cows.”
It is open to farmers, ranchers, farm wives, kids, farmhands, ranch hands, etc.
In 2019, Alberta Ag Service boards asked the Alberta ministries of agriculture and health to create a specific mental health crisis line for agriculture, says Hunt.
The reason is that many counsellors and other professionals don’t understand the unique challenges of agriculture.
For example, a health care worker gives the farmer a note for two weeks off, but the farmer can’t take time off, says Hunt. Or a farmer is worried about the weather (drought), but the counsellor suggests they enjoy the sunshine.
Farming and ranching are high stress-occupations, says Hunt. A study in 2016 with Ontario farmers identified a mental health crisis for farm families.
Canada doesn’t track industry-specific suicide numbers, but the U.S. does, she adds. In the Great Plains (the U.S. portion of the Prairies), the suicide rate among agricultural workers is much higher than the average. Canada likely has a similar problem.
The Farm Network is run by Agricultural Research and Extension Council of Alberta (ARECA – pronounced ‘Erica’). It is partnering with existing programs, such as the Rural Mental Health Network.
“There’s a lot of mental health work in the province,” says Hunt.
There’s more information on www.areca.ca. This includes a survey.
The survey is open to “anyone who is interested in farm mental health,” says Hunt.
The Farm Network is also looking for partnerships to run ‘In The Know’ workshops in communities.
In the Know is like Mental Health 101, but with a farm focus, says Hunt. It is led by mental health professionals with an agriculture background and takes four hours.
Another part of the Farm Network is bringing together mental health resources so that people can easily find what they need.
