Those of us in the cities who strive for better conditions in our own working world need to be equally compassionate when it comes to the difficulty of farm life.
Admittedly, it isn’t the first time we’ve seen this.
In 1989 under the Grant Devine Progressive Conservative, the provincial agriculture department set up the first farm stress line.
Coming off a period of extreme drought in this province, farm solvency was in question.
Unfortunately, the cycle of drought and extreme storms likely result from a changing climate seems to making the unpredictability of weather that much more difficult.
The result of all this is added stress on the farm that we haven’t heard as much about in recent years in which we’ve seen higher yields and better and prices.
Fortunately, we live in a world today where stress, anxiety and mental illness is something we can talk about more openly.
As a society in the whole, we are far more understanding and compassionate about bereavement leave and stress leave.
But sometimes in this province, the conversation about such matters is too often confined to the urban work environment and doesn’t really extend to the farming community that may face the most workplace stress.
It is sad and stressful to lose your job at the provincial-owned bus company. But it is as or more stressful to face the loss of your entire farming livelihood.
Also fortunately, social media affords those going through the same stressful situations to get together and help themselves.
That’s what is happening right now.
A recent story in the Regina Leader-Post by Ashley Robinson described how Mathieu and Lesley Kelly decided to share their own story after hearing about other similar stressful situations on Twitter.
“We just felt by us sharing our story it would help others feel more comfortable and confident in sharing theirs,” Lesley said.
So the couple did a live stream interview from their kitchen table that has now been viewed some 8,000 times.
Theirs is a story that’s become all too common. Moving to Alberta after they were first married to pursue more stable jobs in the oil industry and marketing, they moved back to Saskatchewan to pursue a farm-based life. Two children came along, but — like many of us — they found out that life doesn’t always work out perfectly.
The couple has bravely told their story of how Mathieu struggled with anxiety and how Lesley struggled with depression during and after her second pregnancy.
“I went upstairs to have a nap and just cried and cried,” she said.
Mathieu tried to be supportive, but the pressures of the having to take a crop off at the time eventually took its toll on him, as well.
“You throw in the stresses of the crop, the change in life, then lack of sleep and then you started to compound it,” Mathieu Kelly told Robinson. “And with the anxiety you get caught up in your head and you start creating a story in your head and then that story doesn’t make sense and then you feed off of it.”
By getting help first through the provincial mental health line and after attending counselling in Regina, Mathieu is beginning to cope.
“I found that each of individual things that I started doing were therapy,” focusing on the day-to-day tasks, talking with Lesley, talking with different people,” he told the newspaper.
Their video now seems to be helping other farming families going through similar things — not just in Saskatchewan, but as far away as the United States.
This is a good thing, but more government support and societal support is needed for farmers enduring stress.
As we all should all know, no one can do it alone.
Murray Mandryk has been covering provincial politics for over 22 years.
