Being a farmer or even being part of a farm family requires a lot of patience. The weather, markets and the economy are enough to make anyone feel crazy or depressed. The mental side of the farm is part of a special program being operated by the Indiana Rural Health Association called Healthy Minds, Healthy Lives.
“It’s a difficult subject to talk about, suicide, I recognize that, but it is incredibly important to have a conversation,” said Executive Director for the Indiana Rural Health Association Cara Veale. “Even telling someone I am worried about you and I care about you. Is everything OK? How can I help? Might be the difference in someone not taking their life. We really need to get the word out, remove the stigma about mental health and suicide and really open up about resources and opportunities to get the appropriate treatment.”
The Healthy Minds, Healthy Lives project is part of a state-wide program to fight suicide in rural Indiana.
“It is to increase awareness of suicide and identify services associated with and to refer patients to for suicide prevention and mental health,” said Veale. “There is a training in there for QPR (question, persuade, refer) and it really helps people understand how they can have a conversation with someone about suicide.”
The program was presented this week at the Daviess Community Hospital. It included some of the things that can create stress for farm families and ways to reach out to those who may be struggling with their mental health.
“Partnering with mother nature, the weather, and there are a lot of different stressors that can play a part in the mental health of farmers and farm families. Farm safety, fluctuations in the economy, regulatory burden and changes, so there is a lot that can go on in increasing the stress on farm families and ranchers,” said Veale. “We talk about some of the mental health landscape in Indiana and then focus on some of the resources out there. There are options for telehealth with a behavior specialist, with programs available through Purdue.”
Veale points out that one of the biggest hurdles to bringing mental health help to the farm is the reluctance of those who may need help to seek it out.
“We see that it is difficult to get those hurting to open up. Suicide and mental health continues to have a stigma surrounding it. They don’t want to admit to it, because they are fearful, they will be judged. Too often the response is put on big boy pants and deal with it,” said Veale who points out that mental illness is just as real as the flu, even though it may be harder to identify. “We have blood tests that check for diabetes and high blood pressure and high cholesterol, but we don’t have a blood test for mental health. Too often people perceive it, unfortunately as not a real illness or if it is a real illness, I don’t want anyone to know because it is embarrassing.”
Veale says the Healthy Minds, Healthy Lives program is about getting past the stigma of depression and mental illness and finding ways to bring the help some farm families may need.
“This program is to designed to try and navigate around that stigma and find a safe space to have a conversation about it and identify how to best get the conversation started and convince folks that it is a real thing,” said Veale. “It is targeted not just at farmers, but their families. My family works with a lot of farmers locally and having that conversation, getting them to the table, may or may not happen. The younger generation seems to be more open to dealing with mental health concerns so let’s get families involved and talk with them about intervention when they begin coming across thoughts or talk about suicide.”
Veale points out that an additional challenge has been getting mental health professionals who are available to deal with people who are struggling. She points out the IRHA has been making efforts to get more expertise into rural Indiana.
“Indiana is considered a mental health professional shortage area, but that is not just limited to Indiana. That seems to be the case nationwide. There is a significant need for more mental health providers,” she said. “We are working for mental health workers like licensed clinical social workers to be able to intervene earlier so that people are not waiting to get treatment from a psychiatrist or psychologist. We have made great strides in expanding the scope of practice for mental health providers in Indiana but we are still very, very limited.”
Veale says the effort includes bringing in physicians to assist in bringing mental health care to rural families.
“In rural communities we often rely on family practitioners to intervene in mental health treatment. There are consulting services where a general practitioner can contact a mental health provider on how to treat a patient that can’t get seen because there is not a psychiatrist available,” said Veale. “There are resources available. We just have to be certain that we are bridging that connection between the providers that are available to the ones who aren’t.”
And the hope is that the effort will pay off with fewer suicides and deaths among farmers in Indiana.
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