Latest News From Mental Health

Promoting mental health involves fostering supportive environments, reducing stigma, providing access to care and resources and encouraging self-care. Here's how The Maschhoffs is helping their employees manage stress.

It’s important the friends, family, and business professionals close to farmers are prepared and able to effectively communicate in a mental health crisis.

Balancing life can often feel a lot like balancing buckets of milk. Hear how one farmer changed his perspective and metaphorically learned to carry few buckets for a more meaningful and less stressed life.

From improved telehealth services to reimagined small-town hospitals, the National Rural Health Association is working to help folks in farm country tap into more and better medical care options.

More than 1 in 5 U.S. adults live with a mental illness. U.S. Representative Jim Costa (D-CA) says Congress cannot ignore the mental health crisis in America anymore. 

Ted Mathews, who works for the Minnesota Department of Agriculture and serves as the director of Minnesota Rural Mental Health underscores that communication is an incredibly important part of all family and farm life.

September is National Suicide Prevention Month. According to the CDC, between 2000 and 2020 suicide rates climbed 46% in rural areas. By comparison, the rate in metro areas climbed 27.3%. 

It's no wonder farmers experience higher levels of anxiety and depression because of the many factors they deal with that are out of their control. But how does that affect their family? A new study sheds light.

Farm life is far from simple, and this especially holds true for dairy farms that operate 24/7, 365 days a year. The rate of suicide among farmers is three and a half times higher than among the general population.

Negativity breeds negativity, right? Remember that. But the same can be said about positivity. Positivity can grow if we choose it too. Flip a switch on your mind, that will turn up cheerfulness on the farm. 

Producers feel exhausted dealing with the highs and lows of the industry. Add in the current state of the dairy economy with low milk prices, and it’s not too surprising that mental health is also impacting producers.

The saying that we’re all in this together isn’t necessarily felt by those that suffer from mental health. Randy Roecker, a Wisconsin dairy farmer, who has been very open about his mental health struggle agrees.

Farming is getting far more complex, says Ted Matthews, director of Rural Minnesota Mental Health Support. Because of that, it’s more important than ever to take care of yourself.

Farming isn’t just an occupation—it’s a lifestyle that includes a rollercoaster of challenges, including the pressure to sustain the family farm. Understandably, many farmers suffer from mental health challenges.

An estimated 12,000 youth were injured on farms, with 4,000 of these injuries due to farm work in 2014. Sydni Mell and her brother Sam, both who grew up on a Wisconsin dairy farm, understand that statistic all too well.

With the current economic situation, both in agriculture and even personally, it is easy to feel stress and overwhelmed. Here are some suggestions on how to manage stress and work through a difficult time.

The American Psychological Association finds the degree of stress placed upon farmers so unique it has given it its own name, “Farmer Stress.”

It doesn’t matter if it’s spring, summer, winter or fall, weather is always on producers’ minds. While slower seasons can offer relief, winter can drain emotional batteries. Here are two steps to help find relief.

There are two key things you can be prepared with to support someone struggling mentally.

After 30 years working in the field of rural mental health, Ted Matthews understands the factors that stress farmers and knows how to help them.

Veterinarians and their staffs have a higher suicide rate than the general population. “Not One More Vet” is an organization dedicated to reversing that disturbing statistic.

A little bit better is a little bit better, said Ted Matthews, director of Minnesota Rural Mental Health. Matthews dispels myths about mental health, counseling and anxiety on the farm.

There may never be a more important time to focus on the relationships with your employees.

Creating a work life balance is not just for the nine-to-fivers. In fact, striking a balance between life on and off the farm might be even more crucial for today’s farmers.

In a world where job opportunities are endless, take the necessary steps to develop areas of work-life balance within your teams.

Ted Matthews joins AgriTalk’s Chip Flory to discuss managing farm stress, and how to get your head right ahead of the harvest season.

More than a year ago, dairy farmer Jessica Peters from western Pennsylvania began sharing a project, “Secrets of Ag.” Since its launch, “Secrets of Ag” has had nearly 400 submissions.

My 28-year-old nephew, Brooks, was a multi-generational farmer and father of 4-year-old twins. His death by suicide is a tragic and poignant indicator of a problem that is drastically increasing, a reader shared.

When a mental health crisis hits, Shannon Ferrell, Oklahoma State University ag law specialist, outlines seven resources to keep handy in the event you are the first responder to help someone in need someday. 

It started with a broken baler. The farmer panicked. He had recently lost his brother to cancer and his father to old age. Not to mention he had 2,500 acres to farm, 250 beef cows to attend to and his crop just froze. 

“Suck it up buttercup.” This familiar phrase is one many farmers and ranchers learn early in life: be tough, self-reliant and resilient. But experts say that approach doesn't work when dealing with stress.

The stresses of farming can leave individuals feeling bitter, anxious and overwhelmed. Challenges piled on top of one another can lead to chronic stress that interferes with good decision-making and family relationships.

Make mental health a priority for your team

Trade war. Ethanol headaches. Daunting price outlooks. 2020 has been overwhelming for farmers so many reasons – and that’s not even considering the rug that really got pulled from under us, says John Phipps.

While farmers prepare their farms physically many do not take the time to prepare themselves mentally for a natural disaster.

Social withdrawal is a key thing to watch for in our friends now, but with social distancing , that’s hard to see, says Val Farmer, a clinical psychologist and author. It's important to get your friends talking.

Health is the most important asset for any operation, says Sean Brotherson, an Extension specialist at North Dakota State University. He shares a few ways to prioritize your health, especially in times of crisis.

Titled the “Seeding Rural Resilience Act,” the bill’s aim is to curb the rising rate of farmer suicides in America.

Farm families are feeling the pressure of an inconsistent and unreliable economy.

Farming is stressful—this year proves challenging for even experienced farmers. However, it’s important for you, friends and family to remember that stress on the farm should be just that—stress on the farm.

As the various factors in agriculture weighs on producers, conversations surrounding mental health and suicide awareness are becoming more common, as experts and others try to remove the stigma around mental health.

Younger rural adults reported experiencing more mental health challenges now than a year ago, according to an April 2019 rural stress poll conducted for the American Farm Bureau Federation.

The physical and emotional toll of these circumstances are feeding a growing incidence of depression and anxiety among farmers, as evidenced in the results of a poll commissioned by the American Farm Bureau Federation.

Nearly 1.3 million people living in rural America have thoughts of suicide each year.

Calls to the Wisconsin Farm Center, which helps distressed farmers, were up last year, including a 33 percent increase in November and December compared to the same two months the previous year.

Information on how to recognize signs of poor mental health and resources for help and support.