MENTAL HEALTH
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someone who lost a farm client to suicide.
The sender had seen what Keller
had previously done to raise awareness
about the state of mental health
in farming communities with the
#HereForFarmers t-shirt campaign.
(The funds from this initiative were
donated to the Saskatchewan Farm
Stress Line.)
In response to the plea for help,
Keller put out Tweets asking the ag
community to “do more” about the
situation, which in turn inspired fellow
Saskatchewan farmer Lesley Kelly
to get involved and eventually become
one of Do More Ag’s four co-founders.
Kelly and her husband had experienced
firsthand the result of farming stress.
“My husband and I thought about
how we could help advance the conversation
around mental health, so
we shared a video about our mental
health story,” Kelly explained.
“After that video, we realized
something really had to be done
with mental health in agriculture.
Something I learned in our journey
is that mental health is part of all of
us, and each one of us has our own
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story. We realized after we shared
our story, people felt they really were
alone. They didn’t know where to go.
They didn’t know how to have conversations,
either with their employees,
or with family members and friends.”
She said she and her fellow founders
feel strongly that mental health
issues “shouldn’t be a hushed conversation
anymore.”
“We’d like it to be a conversation
we have as freely as we talk about the
weather,” said Kelly, who also writes
the blog High Heels & Canola Fields.
“What we realized was that there
was such a huge stigma (around mental
health issues) for a farmer. In agriculture,
we’re built on being strong
and persevering through obstacles
with hard work, but that can be our
weakness, in that if a farmer is tough,
you’ve got to suck it up, tough it out,
and don’t show any signs of emotion,
because if you do, you’re ‘weak.’ And
that’s just not true.”
The foundation operates under
three pillars of focus in its efforts
to champion the mental wellbeing of
all Canadian producers. First, it aims
to generate awareness and break the
stigma – promoting open dialogue as
a pathway to health. Secondly, it’s trying
to build a community to share
resources for mental health, and lastly,
it’s raising funds to support research
in this area.
CFA efforts
The Canadian Federation of
Agriculture (CFA) is also supporting
producer mental wellness. It recently
partnered with Do More Ag, as well as
with the Canadian Agricultural Human
Resource Council, Farm Management
Canada and the Canadian Agricultural
Safety Association to create the annual
Brigit Rivoire Award for Champions
of Agricultural Mental Health.
The award is named after the
CFA’s executive director who passed
away three years ago. It recognizes an
individual, organization, or group of
individuals that has made outstanding
contributions in raising awareness,
addressing stigma, and supporting
agricultural mental health in their
local community. CFA President Ron
Bonnett said this was an area Rivoire
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Manitoba Farmers’ Voice § Winter 2019 § 13
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