Farmers are tough . They work long days at physically demanding , often dangerous body of work and rarely get a severance , much less a holiday . Months of hard work can be wiped out with a few days of bad weather , and they combat nature at every round , from drouth and floods to weeds and insect .
It is no marvel that Fannie Farmer and ranchers often rate high on the list of most dangerous and nerve-wracking profession and that rates of sodbuster self-destruction are far high than the overall population of workers .
But Fannie Farmer are also resilient , and a multidisciplinary team from the University of Georgia ’s College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences ( CAES ) , UGA Cooperative Extension , UGA School of Social Work , and UGA College of Family and Consumer Sciences ( FACS ) is working to help farmers wield the hard times through a numeral of projection , include the Farmer Stress and Suicide : Community Prevention and Intervention program , all under the umbrella of the Rural Georgia : maturate Stronger enterprisingness .
Mark Rouark ( leave ) and John Rouark , cotton farmers from Bostwick , Georgia , study cotton fiber plants in a test plot of land at the J. Phil Campbell Research and Education Center Field Day . manufacturer count on UGA Extension agent for research - based advice to improve production practices . Now UGA faculty are work together to help farm communities under strain .
Supported by interdisciplinary research pre - seed financing from the UGA Office of Research and the Office of the Provost , the team is head by Anna Scheyett , a prof in both the schooling of social work and the CAES Department of Agricultural Leadership , Education and Communication .
Gathering dataScheyett has been working with CAES and UGA Extension staff since 2019 to gather info from farming communities on their stressors , coping mechanisms , and knowledge of resources uncommitted . Responses indicate that farmers and other penis of rural community know their primary stressors and that tenseness grade are high . However , only about a third said they were surefooted about knowing what to do if someone they get laid were under utmost stress or feel self-destructive .
Most of the primary stressors for farmers are those outside of their controller — stimulus prices , commodity prices , labor , weather — and respondents were most likely to look on closemouthed personal relationships for support rather than professional , Scheyett said .
" Farmers are very sovereign , very driven , and very stoic . When we require James Leonard Farmer and those who are Fannie Merritt Farmer - associated who they trust — who they would speak to in times of stress — 97 % enjoin a spouse , " she added .
Similarly , respondents said they favor to get their info on support and resource from sources they already intrust . As a part of the prevention and intervention program , an enterprise in UGA Extension ’s Southwest District seeks to capitalize on events that are likely to describe the attendance of Fannie Merritt Farmer and those living in rural area , such as production meetings .
Held annually by Extension bureau all around Georgia , production meeting are an opportunity for growers , producers , and other member of the agricultural community of interests to get the latest scientific discipline - base recommendations from agents , realize need proceed education credits , and connection , usually over a shared meal .
UGA Extension agent measure these opportunities to touch al-Qaida with the residential area members they lick with and to provide important information about inquiry and resource available through UGA and federal , body politic , and local organisation .
" Farmers get a folder of entropy from the Rural Georgia : Growing Stronger political program that provides info about wellness , wellness , accent , and mental health . We are judge to have that message of physical health and mental as part and bundle of the same thing , " Scheyett said , adding that lineage pressure screenings are frequently offer during the meetings , along with information about the link between stress and roue pressure .
These resourcefulness were first shared at production meetings in Colquitt , Echols , and Mitchell counties , and the program has been dilate to Worth , Sumter , and Calhoun counties .
The team is also engaged in Mental Health First assistance preparation with elongation agents to help them get comfortable with those conversations and help Fannie Merritt Farmer through the interrogative , persuade , refer ( QPR ) model . filename extension is make resources for agent , such as a pocket guide on how to inquire the correct questions to gauge how producers and others in the farming sector — many of them neighbors and friends — are apprehend on a Clarence Shepard Day Jr. - to - 24-hour interval basis .
" When something go on , like the frost that touch on the south Georgia blueberry bush crop this class , we are cue agents not only to talk about the crop but to ask James Leonard Farmer , ' How are you ? ' " Scheyett enounce . " We want to get the message out about stress and what could be done about it . We ca n’t change the weather or good Price or how much diesel is operate to be , but we can help you change the ways you respond to stress so it will not kill you . "
A trusted sourceAndrea Scarrow , Southwest District conductor for UGA Extension , explain that the initiative began with the response to the devastation of Hurricane Michael in October 2018 .
" Our agents are the ones rub shoulders with the farmers every day and who have that trust with them , " Scarrow said . " We are not counselors or genial wellness professionals , but we do have a function to play in encourage and helping that farmer know there are people who can facilitate and that there are resources for them out here . "
It was during that time that UGA Extension get down working with Jennifer Dunn , formerly the behavioral wellness regional services administrator with the Georgia Department of Behavioral Health and Developmental Disabilities , now the first rural health agent for UGA Extension .
" I call for the federal agent , ' What did you say ? ' He say everyone just laughed because it was uncomfortable , " Dunn said . " To me , this demonstrate that , even though people are still really uncomfortable about how we incorporate this sort of information in a setting where we ’ve never talked about this before , ethnic music are ready to talk about it . "
Echols County Agriculture and Natural Resources Agent Justin Shealey , a fifth - generation farmer from Adel , Georgia , say the initiative has help him tailor how he interact and shares entropy with producer .
" This demand to be part of our everyday agenda to keep mindful of it and to provide a serving to our producers . I would like to be a resource if they ask it , just as if someone has a question about a specific harvest , " said Shealey . " I do n’t desire to leave anything unfinished . Like with everything we do , we want to ensure we really address the issue , so another one does n’t come up down the road afterward . "
connect within the communityDunn feels like her own personal link to the farming community through her beginner — Richard Ward , a longtime farmer and agricultural banker in Calhoun County — lends sum credibility to the info she allow at the meetings .
" I would give my phone number out at production meetings , and I would get between four and six phone birdsong from Farmer over the next hebdomad , " she said . " These citizenry do not need to call a 1 - 800 number for help . They need to let the cat out of the bag to someone they feel like they can swear , and I then assist them connect with the resource they require . "
Dunn said tap into the natural propensity of those subsist in rural communities to come to each other ’s care in times of crisis is an significant quality to tie into all type of wellness .
" Mental wellness and physical health should not be separate the way they are because they are so interrelated , " she say . " When someone has breast cancer , you automatically convey them a casserole or pick their kids up from school or rumple them a shawl . But if they are get a genial health crisis , do we take them a casserole or cull their kids up ? We do n’t . There are a lot of reasons for that , but we want to make mental health and forcible health as parallel as possible . "
succeeding plans let in expanding telehealth opportunity and creating peer - to - compeer meshing , let in farmers , retired Fannie Farmer , and other member of the agricultural community who can serve as resource within their own communities . Scheyett also started a website , Thriving on the Farm , extend tip and putz for handle stress and read care in rural communities .
" Farmers are tech - savvy these days . They apply iPads and mobile gimmick to get report from our specialist electronically , so we can employ that to connect them to resources that may not be right there in the community , " Scarrow enounce . " We require to alter the belief that there ’s nowhere to deform into knowingness that there is a riches of resources for them to touch base with . "
To diversify their reach , the team also plans to stay on to fetch their message to agriculture - adjacent audiences , such as veterinary conferences and the Georgia Chamber of Commerce ’s American Rural Prosperity Summit . approaching events admit programs for Mental Health Day at the Georgia Capitol in January and additional UGA Extension rural stress breast design for spring and fall 2023 .
As a result of the first rural health top , the Georgia Agricultural Wellness Alliance was created with partners from UGA , Georgia Farm Bureau , Georgia Department of Agriculture , Georgia Foundation for Agriculture , Georgia Department of Behavioral Health and Developmental Disabilities , and the Georgia Rural Health Innovation Center at Mercer University School of Medicine .
" We formed this confederation to bring together a chemical group of establishment who are calculate at long - term goal for the state on how we support the whole health of the farming biotic community in Georgia , " Dunn tell . " It is kind of a think tank of people who are work to reckon out the adept practice and how we want to enforce them here . I need other masses to come to Georgia to learn what we are doing . "
For more information : University of GeorgiaCollege of Agricultural and Environmental Scienceswww.caes.uga.edu .
