Mental health initiative to assist producers

A Saskatchewan farm couple who has weathered mental health storms wants farmers and ranchers to know it’s OK to ask for help.

“Agriculture is a very strong industry,” said Lesley Kelly. “We persevere, we’re a tight-knit community and it’s that strength and perseverance that can be our greatest weakness as well.

“We do have that culture of toughing it out. You don’t share your feelings cause you’re strong and you’re not meant to cry.”

To provide mental health assistance for the farming and ranching community, Lesley and others co-founded the Do More Agriculture Foundation. The seed for the foundation was planted after Kim Keller started an online conversation about the mental health needs of those in agriculture.

After the birth of Copeland, her second son, Lesley shed many tears.

Seeing she was overwhelmed and sleep deprived, her husband, Matt, took over caring for their oldest son and running the household.

“He told me to go upstairs and said, ‘I’ve got this.’ I couldn’t stop crying. I tried to sleep, but I couldn’t sleep ... Copeland didn’t warm up to me,” Lesley said. “I had a very hard time feeding him, he cried a lot and I wasn’t able to soothe him.

“I thought, ‘You’ve got a year off work and your one job is to be a mom and you can’t do that very well.’ Immense guilt took over.”

With support from Matt, family and friends, Lesley recovered. But shortly after Matt left their Regina home to go back to work on the family grain farm in Watrous, he ran into stormy times.

Living in a camper and commuting back and forth to Regina, Matt missed his family and felt isolated. The stress of some financially difficult years and juggling numerous responsibilities became too much.

“He started to have a panic attack,” Lesley said. “It was terrifying because he didn’t know what was going on.”

One panic attack felt like a heart attack so Matt called the Farm Stress Line. A counsellor gave him short-term coping methods and soon afterward he began counselling sessions in Regina.

Working in isolation makes it tough for many in the agricultural industry to get mental health support, Lesley said.

“There’s long days and long nights, whether you’re in a cab of a tractor or you’re moving cattle, and that can have an impact on mental health,” she said. “If you have cattle, you might not be able to drive the four or five hours to get to resources in an urban area.”

The Kellys would go on to share their “peaks and valleys” in an online video livestream to let people know they aren’t alone.

The video resonated with viewers and sparked a huge response. Among those watching was curler Kirk Muyres, who was involved in the Men of Curling calendar. He suggested proceeds from calendar sales be donated to mental health initiatives to help those in agriculture.

“We did some research and realized there wasn’t a place he could donate to where 100 per cent of the funds would directly go to mental health and agriculture,” Lesley said.

With ag tech entrepreneurs Himanshu Singh and Kim Keller on board, the Do More Agriculture Foundation was launched in January.

Farm Credit Canada (FCC) is contributing $50,000 to the notfor-profit foundation to be used to facilitate mental health first aid training for producers and agriculture industry professionals in communities across Canada.

The training sessions will be delivered by accredited organizations and experts at no cost.

From the beginning of his career, Darren Howden, FCC senior vicepresident of Prairie operations, has witnessed many farm families struggle with mental health issues, partly because it’s become an isolated business. He’s also seen the relief people get when they talk openly about their struggles.

FCC will promote mental health awareness at its wellness centre at the Farm Progress Show and host an afternoon of mental health awareness speakers on Thursday.

Howden has taken mental health first aid training and now feels he can support a person in a crisis until appropriate treatment is found.

“This isn’t about becoming psychiatrists — this is helping people get the help they need,” he said.

Lesley will share her mental health journey Friday at the Empowering Women’s conference at the Farm Progress Show.