Report urges steps to aid mental health of farmers
The federal government is being urged to invest in everything from telephone help lines to cyberbullying protection and high-speed internet infrastructure in an effort to address what some say is a growing mental-health crisis among Canadian farmers.
A total of 10 recommendations were presented to the House of Commons on Tuesday as part of a report by the standing committee on agriculture and agri-food, which has spent the past year studying mental-health challenges in the agriculture community. Studies have shown suicide rates worldwide are higher among farmers than in the rest of the population, and farmers report higher levels of stress, depression, emotional exhaustion and burnout than the general population.
A 2016 University of Guelph survey showed 58 per cent of farmers polled suffered from varying levels of anxiety, and 35 per cent had experienced depression.
In the months before the release of Tuesday’s report, a variety of mental-health groups, agriculture organizations and individual farmers testified before the all-party committee.
Sean Stanford, a Lethbridge-area farmer who spoke to Postmedia in September about his own struggles with anxiety, travelled to Ottawa later in the fall to tell his story.
“I think it’s really great that it’s been taken so seriously and taken so far. Farmers are getting recognized as real people — we’re not just getting shoved to the side anymore,” Stanford said in a phone interview on Tuesday. “But now for them to follow through on the recommendations is really necessary. To see them come out with a report and not act on it would be pretty disheartening.”
Among the recommendations are calls for the federal government to oversee the co-ordination of research and prevention activities targeting the mental health of farmers, as well as fund the activities of recognized and accredited organizations that provide agriculture-specific mental-health services.
Telephone and online health services for farmers, as well as the accelerated deployment of highspeed internet infrastructure in rural areas, are encouraged as ways to reduce the isolation factor that contributes to many farmers suffering in silence.
The report also recommends the government invest in mental-health first aid training for professionals who work closely with farmers, so that veterinarians, bankers and equipment dealers can recognize the signs of someone going through a mental-health crisis and respond appropriately.
And it calls for the creation of a cyberbullying strategy to address the online vitriol some farmers are subjected to by animal activists and others opposed to mainstream agricultural practices.
Earl Dreeshen, Conservative MP for Red Deer-Mountain View and a member of the standing committee, operates a grain farm near Pine Lake that has been in the family for four generations. He said he knows first-hand how stressful the long hours and financial strain of farming can be.
“Over the years, we’ve had neighbours that have committed suicide. I know the stress of losing a crop, or losing a bunch of animals through no fault of your own,” he said. “It’s really hard.” Dreeshen said that in addition to the 10 recommendations in the report, he would like to see the government take a stronger stance on issues that keep farmers up at night, such as the current diplomatic dispute with China that has halted Canadian canola shipments to that country.
He added that producers’ hardships are often exacerbated by government policies, such as the carbon tax and concessions made in recent trade agreements.
“These are the things that farmers see and feel, and that impact on their bottom line,” Dreeshen said. “We need to stand up for our farmers.”
Lesley Kelly, the co-founder of Do More Agriculture, a not-forprofit foundation created in 2017 that aims to create awareness about mental health on the farm, called Tuesday “a great day,” adding it is incredibly gratifying to see the mental-health issue elevated to the national stage.
Kelly, who farms in Saskatchewan with her husband and has spoken publicly about her family’s own mental-health issues, said the conversation has snowballed in recent months as one farmer after another has come forward with personal stories.
“Whether it’s financial debt, family dynamics, public perception, succession of the farm, we are hearing there is a wide variety of things that are affecting the mental health of producers,” she said. “We get messages almost daily.”