It started out with a tweet but the conversation about mental health in the agriculture industry is continuing to grow.
This is the mission of the Do More Agriculture Foundation, co-founded by Kim Keller, Lesley Rae Kelly, Himanshu Singh, and Saskatchewan curler Kirk Muyres, which launched at FarmTech in Edmonton on Jan. 30.
On June 24, 2017, Keller tweeted, “#Ag we gotta do more. I rcv’d a msg yesterday that kept me up thinking of how we do more. Farm stress is real.”
From there the conversation grew from social media to farm show discussions to industry players joining the conversation.
“The industry wants to talk and they’re ready to talk about it and actually do something to support their farmers as well as anyone else in the industry who might need that conversation.”
The more the industry kept wanting to talk about it, the more Keller knew something had to be put in place to offer help to all farmers.
Darren Howden, Farm Credit Canada (FCC) Senior VP of Operations for Saskatchewan and Manitoba is very proud of Keller for the direction she has given the conversation.
“What’s been cool to see is how the conversation is happening. Before you had to dig into it...it just seems to be an easier conversation to have,” says Howden.
Since the conversation started, FCC has completed mental health first aid training with 86 their office leaders and senior staff, including Howden himself. What is even more fantastic is that Howden is seeing his staff use the training.
“What it’s done is provided more confidence for our folks to be engaging in those conversations.”
It all started with that tweet, says Howden.
Education, awareness, and opening up the conversation are the main goals of the foundation with easy access to mental health resources and support.
“If someone’s looking for help and they have no idea where to go they can come to our sight and see what is available in their area or in our province.”
While resources might be limited in Saskatchewan, Keller wants to make those resources easy to access.
“The resources are really tough to find so we’re hoping we can remove that barrier and at least make these resources easier to find.”
It did not take much for Muyres to get involved since he attributes much of his success to the agriculture industry growing up on his family farm near St. Gregor.
Muyres himself had to deal with his own anxiety when he moved to the city but it was not until he saw the video done by Lesley Rae and her husband, Matt, that he realized that this is something that everyone goes through.
“Everyone has some mental health struggles whether it is personal or someone in their family. If we can start to talk about that more, that’s one of the biggest goals.”
In the last six months since the tweet, Keller has spoken about mental health in Agriculture at around a dozen farm shows. It only ever took one person to stand up and tell their story to get everyone else comfortable with the subject matter.
“The awkwardness and the stigma that might have been there slowly starts to go away. It’s awesome to see.”
Considering how the conversation has grown, Keller is excited to see where the conversation can go in the next six months.
