Managing Mental Health

So my name is Shoshana Inwood. I'm a rural sociologist at Ohio State University,
and my work really focuses on understanding how do we grow and
support the next generations of farmers.
You have been working on how childcare specifically is a
causing issues across rural communities as well as farm expansion.
Can you talk about this effort and what you're finding through your research?
Sure. So in the United States,
we really have this crisis of who's going to be the next generation of farmers.
The average age of farmers is 58.9,
and less than 2% of our population is farming.
And so USDA and states have been putting a lot of money and resources into
trying to grow the next generation of farmers.
And really the focus has been on access to land capital,
skill development markets, all of which is incredibly important,
but equally as important.
And what's been really overlooked is the importance of social and household
level issues in farm sustainability and farm growth.
And so one of the things that we've been looking at are how do issues of
access to affordable quality childcare and also health insurance affect
efforts to create economic development and affect quality of life in the farm
sector.
And we've been talking and surveying farmers across the country we've spoken to
and surveyed thousands of farmers across the country and have really heard how
significant of an issue this is for them.
And I would extend that myself as significant in rural communities.
For those in general in agriculture, what kind of issues,
either lack of access, lack of quality, have you found more on?
Right. And thank you for bringing up.
This is definitely both a farm issue and a rural development issue.
They go hand in hand because rural areas are much more likely to be childcare
deserts. So there's a lack of available childcare to begin with.
And on top of that,
childcare that is available tends to be for jobs that are focused around nine to
five center-based care. And we know in farming,
it often happens in those non-traditional hours in the very early mornings,
in the evenings and on weekends.
And so there's also a mismatch of what the hours are for care.
I think one of the biggest myths that we've actually come across in this
research is there's an idea in agriculture that childcare is just not an
issue for farmers, that there's lots of family around to care for the kids,
and yet you can also bring the kids to work. But in fact, we know that farms,
while very wonderful places to grow up,
are in fact very dangerous places with large machinery,
with electric fences with large animals. And so the majority of parents,
86% of parents in our surveys have said, we're concerned about farm safety.
And the recommendation from farm safety experts for the last 20 years has
actually to get kids out of the farm working the work site itself.
But there hasn't been any research into, well,
where can parents put kids so that they are safe?
And that was one of the things that were really trying to understand is what are
the lived realities of farm parents as they're trying to get the farm work done
so that they can feed and clothe the nation,
but then also keep their kids safe at the same time?
What parents have said repeatedly is, we know that the farm site is dangerous,
but we don't have available affordable quality childcare
options for our children.
And one may expect, well, why doesn't grandma watch the kids or the farm mom?
Those women are also working today,
where compared to maybe my generation growing up or beyond, they weren't.
So what are some of the lifestyle changes of the farm communities as farms have
integrated and have more consolidation?
Yeah, absolutely.
So I think we've really seen a change in the American economy as a whole.
So folks are having to work longer. And we know as a whole,
the farm population oftentimes relies on off-farm jobs.
Somebody in the household, oftentimes spouses working,
a woman is working off the farm.
And so we have grandparents who are still working who are not available
for taking care of the children. And at the same time,
we also talked to parents who said,
my parents aren't interested in watching the kids,
or they have their own health problems and aren't able to watch the kids.
The other trend that's really interesting,
what we've seen in America is a growth in women farmers and women really
asserting their position in agriculture, which they've always had,
but are now being really acknowledged for their role as farmers.
And we've had farmers say to us,
why is it that farming is the only occupation where you're expected to take your
child to work? And I think that really gives us a moment to pause,
to be able to realize that folks are having to make some really difficult
calculations about what to do with the kids and how to grow their farm operation
at the same time. So do you spend the money to send the kid to childcare,
which can be very, very expensive, right?
Or do you stay home yourself to take care of your child and hire a farm
employee who then you have to train and figure out what that wage will be in
order to grow the farm business?
So there's a lot of trade off that families are having to do at the same time.
With the research results. Where do they go from here?
How does that get used in a larger.
Conversation? Sure.
So one of the things that we asked for our parents to tell us is what would make
your life easier for raising kids on the farm?
And what was actually really interesting was the number one thing that folks
said is actually affordable health insurance actually make their lives a lot
easier.
And they also asked for a range of different solutions for more affordable to
free childcare options.
And one of the things that we know about America and rural America is that
there's no one size fits all solution to childcare issues.
And so we need to have really policy makers and folks who've been also working
in the area of childcare coming together along with folks at USDA to say,
how do we make investments in our rural communities on this issue?
And so it can be about creating more childcare facilities.
It can also be about creating more in-home childcare facilities,
and how do we also create new professional development opportunities for folks
who want to be childcare providers so that they're also able to make a living
and also contribute to their rural economies that way.
So I think that there's a lot of creative solutions out there that we could be
addressing and that will benefit farmers,
but then also communities that rely on factories and hospitals
that are also operating on three shifts.
And so this really can be a broader rural development initiative.
Is there an attempt to make this part of this 2023 farm bill?
There has been a lot of bipartisan support for how do
we address childcare through the Farm Bill and both American Farm Bureau and
National Farmers Union, the two largest farm organizations in the United States,
both included increasing access to affordable quality childcare in their 2023
Farm bill priorities. This is the first time in history,
and so this is a really exciting moment for us to talk about this issue.
Moving forward.
What other type of research will you be looking into when it comes to that
lifestyle? Holdups like childcare and health insurance.
The farm population is very, very diverse. It's a heterogeneous, and again,
there's no one size fits all solution for all different types of farmers.
And so I think we need to look more closely at different types of farmers in
different locations across the United States and what's going to work best for
those folks and what are the specific issues so that we can actually understand
more of the nuances and create more tailored both education and extension and
research and policy solutions for folks.
Is there anything else that you'd like to wrap us up with?
So I think one of the things,
there's two things that are really surprising from this research that I think
have been hidden from our conversations.
Farmer Mental is Mental health awareness month.
And there's been a lot of effort to address farmer mental health.
And one of the things that we were really surprised about is in almost every
focus group we did,
there was a woman who mentioned about having postpartum depression.
And over half of our national sample of farmers who responded,
860 farmers across the country said that they knew somebody or had somebody in
their family that had suffered from pre and postpartum depression.
So this is also another invisible issue in agriculture.
And also when we're looking about what are the extraordinary stressors in
agricultural, a lot of times we focus on weather,
on climate events that those are going to be big stressors,
but it's the everyday stressors like childcare that actually affect your ability
to withstand and be resilient to those bigger stressors.
And so we know from economic research that healthier workers are
happier workers are more innovative and more creative.
And so we have to think about how do we address these much more everyday
stressors so that we can increase the vitality of our agricultural sector.
And I think finally the last thing is that farmers really want
their farm organizations and policymakers to address this issue.
When we do this research,
it's been amazing at how many folks have cried and said,
thank you for doing this research because we have a family.
We want them to be healthy. This issue cuts across all of agriculture.
It doesn't matter what you grow or how you grow it or where you grow it,
this affects everybody.
And over 70% of farmers said that they want their farm organizations and USDA
to be involved in these national childcare conversations and to address this
issue.

Teaching students about modern agriculture. Hello,
I'm Megan Grabner with Voice of Soy,
a content partnership with the Ohio Soybean Council on Brownfield Grow.
Next Gen ambassadors help educate others about today's agriculture
industry and how it connects to the science students learn in school.
And this voice of soy Jane Hunt who leads the program details why it's important
to the future of Ohio agriculture.
We'll find out more on Brownfield right after this.
Here in Ohio, we grow possibilities. By investing in the soybean checkoff,
farmers can concentrate on running their operations while the Ohio Soybean
Council creates new opportunities for future generations.
The soybean checkup works to get new soy-based products on the market,
builds relationships with international buyers and partners with researchers to
increase yield and on-farm profitability.
Learn more at soy ohio.org/here we grow.
This message brought you by Ohio Soybean Farmers and their checkoff.
Whether it's growing a good crop or growing your business to pass down to the
next generation, farmers know how to build on our strengths and face challenges.
Head on the farmer.
Leaders of the Ohio Soybean Council and Soybean Checkoff are strategically
investing in projects and programs that are developing new markets,
driving innovation, and preparing the next generation for success.
To learn more about how we're growing your profitability,
visit soy ohio.org/here we grow this message brought to you by Ohio
Soybean Farmers and their checkoff.
The mission of the Grow Next Gen Agriculture program is to educate the public
about soybeans and their many uses. Jane Hunt says,
ambassadors help share that message.
We do that in a lot of informal situations,
so we might go to a Farm Bureau sponsored Ag Day,
or we might go to a farmer's market.
We were up at the Cleveland Cavaliers STEM Day.
So students are trained as ambassadors.
They're generally college students. Some high school,
but mostly college students from our land grant universities,
mainly also Ohio State Wilmington.
And in the past we've had several from Central State as well.
We train them on various.
She towns Brownfield,
they use hands-on lessons to engage the learning process.
Activities that actually show some of the different uses of soybeans
in a very quick way.
So we might do making soy ink and we
use Kool-Aid and vegetable oil and a little bit of
soy ethen and water.
And you mix that all together and it actually makes a really nice ink that you
can use to stamp cards or
paper or whatever you want to do with that.
So it's kind of the magic of soy.
Ethen pulls all of those components together,
but those are just some examples. We also grow a lot of,
or germinate a lot of soybean seeds for people because many people have never
seen what a soybean looks like.
So for especially younger audiences,
we'll do soybean seed necklaces where we put 'em in a bag and hang them
around a piece of yarn and hang them around children's necks and
then they can keep their seed warm to get it to germinate.
So we're just really trying to raise awareness of what
soybeans are used for and how important they are to the state of Ohio.
Hunt says ambassadors do visits both in person and virtually.
For more information, visit Grow Next gen.org/ambassadors.
I'm Megan Grabner with Voice of Soy,
a content partnership with the Ohio Soybean Council on Brownfield.

Missouri farmers and ranchers deal with stress on a daily basis,
but when natural disasters strike the mental stresses mount. Hi,
I'm Julie Hawker with this Managing for Profit on Brownfield.
Rachel Jones is the manager of trauma-Informed Care with the Department of
Mental Health.
We began by talking about strengths of rural communities,
and those are so important to keep in mind no matter what individuals or
families or communities are going through,
what disaster they may be going through.
More coming up on Brownfield.
Spending nine hours on a roof during a flood,
looking for someone after a tornado,
losing your home and your crops getting trapped in your car during a snow storm.
When a disaster or a traumatic event happens, thoughts, emotions,
and symptoms can linger, but you can get the help you need to cope and recover.
Disaster related trauma looks different for everyone.
Get help today from the Missouri Department of Mental Health.
Learn about trauma-informed care@dmh.mo.gov.
After a natural disaster, it's common to feel things you normally wouldn't.
Disaster related trauma looks different for everyone. You aren't alone.
There are people who can help you work through it.
The Missouri Department of Mental Health can connect you to local providers and
resources to help you cope after a disaster.
Find the help you need and learn about trauma-informed
care@dmh.mo.gov.
Rachel Jones says,
rural resiliency is very important in overcoming the mental health effects of
natural disasters.
Focusing on strengths when things are going well is pretty easy,
but it does get a little harder when things aren't going so well.
So rural communities have strong social connections.
They have those deep networks. They use collaborations very creatively,
and they're invested in their communities many times because they have
generations attached to those communities and to the land.
They also use non-traditional helpers to fill the roles that are vital for
communities. And we talked about mental health first aid,
but then we also talked about the typical psychological phases of disaster
response,
the impact and heroic and honeymoon and disillusionment and
reconstruction phases,
and that those are very normal for communities to experience.
The more you realize, oh, we're in this phase, this is normal for us,
the easier it is for communities to come together.
She's encouraged by the young people in our series,
one of whom has overcome mental health struggles.
Today's youth have really been more educated about mental health,
and they have access to information and resources that we just didn't have back
in the day. It's a game changer,
and they say that the youth is the future.
And I think in terms of mental health,
this is the most educated age range around social,
emotional, mental health.
And I think that they've probably got some very creative ways to help rural
communities address that. That's not stigmatizing, that's not scary,
that's not off-putting, but it's just normalizing it. If you have a brain,
you have mental health, and that's just the science of it all.
So that is for every farmer, that's for every young person in that farmer's,
family and community. And so that's an exciting way to think about the future.
Finding resources is also a huge part of the department's efforts.
We also had three of our DMH contracted community mental health centers who
shared information about different mental health services or substance use
services, and some of the things that prevent people from asking for help.
And so that was enlightening to hear from them and to help people
understand what resources are available through the Department of Mental Health.
For help with stress,
text mo Safe to seven four one seven four one or call
809 8 5 5 9 9 0.
I'm Julie Harker with Managing for Profit on Brownfield.

University of Missouri extension specialists stand ready to connect farmers with
mental health resources.
I'm Julie Harker with Managing for Profit on Brownfield. Kathy dot Haig.
An mu extension professional says they don't diagnose,
they educate and help people recognize behavioral changes.
So if it's Chi e George that's just not like Susan or that's just not
like George, and then kind of looking into it, sometimes we can look and say,
now, when did that start?
More coming up on Brownfield.
Spending nine hours on a roof during a flood looking for someone after a
tornado,
losing your home and your crops getting trapped in your car during a snow storm.
When a disaster or a traumatic event happens, thoughts, emotions,
and symptoms can linger, but you can get the help you need to cope and recover.
Disaster related trauma looks different for everyone.
Get help today from the Missouri Department of Mental Health.
Learn about trauma-informed care@dmh.mo.gov.
After a natural disaster, it's common to feel things you normally wouldn't.
Disaster related trauma looks different for everyone. You aren't alone.
There are people who can help you work through it.
The Missouri Department of Mental Health can connect you to local providers and
resources to help you cope after a disaster.
Find the help you need and learn about trauma-Informed
care@dmh.mo.gov.
Karen Funken Busch is the head of the Missouri Ag Ability Project and an MU
extension specialist who works with people who have disabilities and are
actively engaged in agriculture. The.
Farmers that I work with, they understand that they have a disability,
they already get that,
and I'm not interested in what they can't do.
I'm more interested, Julie, in what they can do.
And so that's why it's called Agri, which is agriculture and abilities.
Let's look at your abilities.
So my farmers that I work with are all over the board.
They're going to have a physical disability.
They also could have a mental disability,
so they could be struggling with some health issues.
So then we privately talk about what are the health issues that they're
struggling with, and then we start then looking at, well,
what resources do you need? And so we, in Missouri,
we're blessed because we have a lot of resources that we can provide them as it
relates to their physical health, their wellness,
their mental health.
She says a lot of her clients don't have mental health coverage,
but it's available for free. Through Bil.
We provide up to free five counseling sessions.
And it's Telehealth Telepsychology, Julie.
So that's a private counseling. It's offered through the University of Missouri.
It's offered through our Arts and Science Psychology Center.
So farmers and their families and their children are afforded the
opportunity to get five free counseling sessions if they need
more counseling sessions.
If substance abuse issues arise,
they advise talking with your doctor or pharmacist.
We also have a program where we're working with our School of Pharmacy and our
School of Pharmacy.
Students also are doing on the farm assessments where they're looking just at
your pharmaceuticals. So with that program, Julie,
what they do is they look at your vitamins, your supplements,
your medications, alcohol, tobacco.
They're looking at all of those things,
and then they're educating the pharmac that you know that these two may not go
together.
And mental health training first aid training sessions are offered for farmers
to help other farmers. For help with stress,
text most safe to seven four one seven four one,
or call (800) 985-5990. For addressability,
call 1 809 9 5 8 5 0 3.
I'm Julie Harker with Managing for Profit on Brownfield.

A former national FFA officer from Missouri says,
the pressures for everyone in the ag industry are immense,
no matter a person's age.
I'm Julie Harger with Managing for Profit on Brownfield. The.
Past few years,
the stigma has started to come to the surface and people are realizing that it's
time to end. The stigma pressures are high. Anybody really,
honestly can put themselves in the shoes of someone that's in or middle or even
high school. And the pressure of what are they going to do after school?
Are they going to go to college? Are they going to go to a trade school?
Are they going to enter the workhorse.
More coming up on Brownfield.
Spending nine hours on a roof during a flood,
looking for someone after a tornado,
losing your home and your crops getting trapped in your car during a snow storm.
When a disaster or a traumatic event happens, thoughts, emotions,
and symptoms can linger, but you can get the help you need to cope and recover.
Disaster related trauma looks different for everyone.
Get help today from the Missouri Department of Mental Health.
Learn about trauma-informed care@dmh.mo.gov.
After a natural disaster, it's common to feel things you normally wouldn't.
Disaster related trauma looks different for everyone. You aren't alone.
There are people who can help you work through it.
The Missouri Department of Mental Health can connect you to local providers and
resources to help you cope after a disaster.
Find the help you need and learn about trauma-informed
care@dmh.mo.gov.
Paxton Dahmer is a former Missouri FFA president and wrapped up a year as a
national officer.
Are they going to get into the school they want?
Are they doing well enough in sports and grades?
And there's just a lot on their plate.
And I think that's a really formative time for most people as well during high
school and in that timeframe of their life.
And so with all the pressure that they have about what comes next and what
they're even doing in the moment,
I think that mental health is an issue and people are starting to realize that.
And the stigma is starting to go away.
And so especially in organizations like FFA,
where there's a really cool reach to a lot of students at that level,
we're starting to address those things through peer-to-peer leadership models
and students that are working with other students to bring those things to the
surface and to delight and really discuss those. Because ultimately,
if you don't discuss the problem,
then you can't start to find the solution to it.
He says much of the work on increasing mental health awareness is at the local
chapter level, which is the heart of the FFA organization.
He points out that stress is not just felt by farmers,
it's everyone in the ag industry.
My father is what comes to mind. He works a lot.
He works in agriculture and he's gone a lot of times.
He's out in the field working with farmers and whatnot.
He's in sales. And so he sees that very directly,
but he also experiences that very directly.
So I think a lot of people think mental health and agriculture,
they think of the farmer on the farm.
But I think there's so many more levels to it and so many more facets to it just
to people involved in agriculture in general.
We're an industry that feeds the entire world,
but is scrutinized by most people in the world.
And I think that that brings pressure, a lot of pressure,
and that pressure starts to mount up.
And that's when you start to really see and feel the implications of mental
health and stress in agriculture.
Dahmer spent the last year traveling the nation, meeting people of all ages.
We met with students, don't get me wrong,
but we also met with people in legislative offices in dc.
We met with producers on the road and we met with corporate sponsors.
And with all those different conversations,
different things would come to light based upon what their workload looked like.
The people that work in corporate America, in corporate agriculture,
which is very much a thing, they have stress,
just the same as people that work on a farm. It might be different stress,
but it's there.
And so I think the stigma is something that involves the entire industry rather
than just those directly involved on the farm.
And I think that that's something we don't take into account a lot.
He says people in ag are often criticized for how they produce food,
and that takes a toll for help with stress Text most safe,
two seven four one seven four one Or call
809 8 5 5 9 9 0.
I'm Julie Harker with Managing for Profit on Brownfield.

The pressures of farming are immense, and so is the mental stress. Hi,
I am Julie Harker with Managing for Profit on Brownfield. We asked Chris Chin,
who was Missouri's ag director and her family farm's bookkeeper who pays the
farm bills on weekends, what she does to de-stress.
Being with my family, spending time with Kevin's, spending time with our kids.
That's what fills my cut back up. When I do get stressed,
I try to make time for that phone call with one of the kids or with Kevin to
help stay grounded.
More coming up on Brownfield.
Spending nine hours on a roof during a flood,
looking for someone after a tornado,
losing your home and your crops getting trapped in your car during a snow storm.
When a disaster or a traumatic event happens, thoughts, emotions,
and symptoms can linger, but you can get the help you need to cope and recover.
Disaster related trauma looks different for everyone.
Get help today from the Missouri Department of Mental Health.
Learn about trauma-informed care@dmh.mo.gov.
After a natural disaster, it's common to feel things you normally wouldn't.
Disaster related trauma looks different for everyone. You aren't alone.
There are people who can help you work through it.
The Missouri Department of Mental Health can connect you to local providers and
resources to help you cope after a disaster.
Find the help you need and learn about trauma-Informed
care@dmh.mo.gov.
State agriculture Director Christian says,
most farm families have split work between town and the farm,
which creates its own stressors on top of the job of farming. At.
Least one person on that family farm is working in town nowadays.
If nothing else, for health insurance benefits,
because of the rising cost of medical care,
farmers either are uninsured or self-insured or the
spouse is going to town to get that job.
But that means that those families have two full-time jobs now,
and so when they get home,
they still have four or five hours worth of work to do,
and that means on Saturday and Sunday, they're putting in 12, 14 hour days,
and so it is stressful.
And then they might be cutting out early one evening to go serve on a church
board or to serve on a school board. They're still community oriented minded.
What happens is those farmers take care of that work when they get home from
those meetings, and so they may not go to bed till midnight,
one o'clock in the morning.
Jen says there are signs to look for when it comes to mental stress,
and it's okay to ask for help.
Changes in their behavior problems focusing. Those are some warning signs,
loss of interest in things that they used to care about,
not doing the job like they used to do.
Those are all big warning signs or if you start to see them withdraw things that
they used to love to do, they're withdrawing, they're avoiding,
they're changing their habits,
they're changing the way that they do things on the family farm when they've
done something this way for decades.
Those are all things that you need to be paying attention to.
She says the Ag Department is working on new program to address farmer mental
health. By partnering with the University of Missouri Extension.
We want it to be very private.
We want to create an opportunity that if they just want to text somebody about
their stress or they want to have a phone call,
that we have a phone number that they can reach out to get rid of some of that
stress and help them find help if they need it.
And sometimes just talking to somebody is the only help that you need,
but sometimes you need a little extra help and there's nothing wrong with that.
And so that's really what we're focused on is helping people understand it's
okay to ask for help. It's okay not to know all the answers yourself.
She says There is still stigma about mental illness. I.
Think it's getting easier. Most definitely. For some people,
it's easier to talk to a stranger about it, and for others,
it's easier to talk to a friend or a family member about it.
So I think it's going to be different for everyone. For.
Help with stress, text most safe to seven four one seven four one or call
809 8 5 5 9 9 0.
I'm Julie Harker with Managing for Profit on Brownfield.

When it comes to.
Stress, farmers are not the best at de-stressing. Hi,
I am Julie Harker with this Managing for-profit on Brownfield, Missouri.
Agriculture Director Chris Chin is a family farmer herself.
When you have additional responsibilities outside of the farm,
sometimes we overload ourselves and during very stressful times,
that just gets compounded.
And so making sure that we take time to fill our cup back up is very important.
But farmers and ranchers are probably the worst at making time for themselves.
More Coming up on Brownfield.
Spending nine hours on a roof during a flood,
looking for someone after a tornado,
losing your home and your crops getting trapped in your car during a snow storm.
When a disaster or a traumatic event happens, thoughts, emotions,
and symptoms can linger, but you can get the help you need to cope and recover.
Disaster related trauma looks different for everyone.
Get help today from the Missouri Department of Mental Health.
Learn about trauma-informed care@dmh.mo.gov.
After a natural disaster, it's common to feel things you normally wouldn't.
Disaster related trauma looks different for everyone. You aren't alone.
There are people who can help you work through it.
The Missouri Department of Mental Health can connect you to local providers and
resources to help you cope after a disaster.
Find the help you need and learn about trauma-informed
care@dmh.mo.gov.
Ag Director Chris Chin and her husband Kevin are members of a family farming
operation where she does the books on the weekends for women on the farm.
She says there are often added pressures.
Raising livestock with your husband, sorting livestock with your husband.
Those are extra stressors.
It's hard to not take things personally when you're in the middle of sorting
hogs or loading hogs or sorting cattle.
And so women sometimes take things a little more sensitive than what men would.
And we want to make sure that we're living up to our male partners.
We want to make sure that we're doing just as much as they are and we're pulling
our own weight and that they're not having to take care of things for us because
we are women. And when we come in at night, I have dinner to cook.
I had kids' responsibilities and the house and making sure the laundry
is done. And so you just constantly feel like you have work to do as well.
And I know some men do those responsibilities too, but not all the time do they?
And so if you're the one in charge of your chore is to do those household
responsibilities.
Just because you came in off the farm doesn't mean that your work is done for
the day.
Plus, there are intergenerational pressures on many family farms.
That's always a challenge too because every generation wants to make sure they
have a farm to pass on to that next generation.
And we want to pass it on in better shape than what we received it.
And so there's a lot of added pressure that comes with that for the younger
generation. They don't want to be the generation that loses the family farm.
The older generation wants to make sure that they hand them a farm that is
valuable and is something that is an asset to them and not a liability.
She says the current supply and demand issues are adding another layer of stress
to farming.
Right now. Farmers are seeing increased input costs.
They're having supply demand issues.
They're waiting on equipment parts for months,
where before it might be a week was a long wait.
Now you're waiting multiple months. The increased cost of feed inputs,
not only are our corn and soybean prices going up,
but now there's an amino acid shortage.
And so livestock feed rations have had to be changed,
and that's causing an increase in production.
And are we going to be able to get enough for our animals when we market them to
cover these added costs?
These are all things that are going through farm family and ranchers,
families mines right now, and it is stressful. It's a very stressful time.
For help with stress,
text most safe to seven four one seven four one or call
809 8 5 5 9 9 0.
I'm Julie Hawker with Managing for Profit on Brownfield.

Farmers put their bodies to the test,
which can lead to chronic pain in this managing for profit On Brownfield,
the chief medical director of the Missouri Department of Mental Health says,
chronic pain can lead to anxiety.
When you don't sleep, then there's a constant state of anxiety will build up.
Anybody who goes through periods of not sleeping, they'll have,
they cannot be in the best mood.
Glee is so important to reset our brain at night and reset the body.
More. Coming up with Dr. Angeline Stanislaus on Brownfield.
Spending nine hours on a roof during a flood,
looking for someone after a tornado losing your home and your crops
getting trapped in your car during a snow storm.
When a disaster or a traumatic event happens, thoughts, emotions,
and symptoms can linger, but you can get the help you need to cope and recover.
Disaster related trauma looks different for everyone.
Get help today from the Missouri Department of Mental Health.
Learn about trauma-informed care@dmh.mo.gov.
After a natural disaster, it's common to feel things you normally wouldn't.
Disaster related trauma looks different for everyone. You aren't alone.
There are people who can help you work through it.
The Missouri Department of Mental Health can connect you to local providers and
resources to help you cope after a disaster.
Find the help you need and learn about trauma-informed
care@dmh.mo.gov.
Dr. Stanislaw says,
the mind and body are connected when it comes to chronic pain,
which often affects farmers.
These are very strong men who don't believe chronic pain should
stop them from doing anything, and they think it is a matter of mind,
and they'll push through. They'll push the pain. Now,
what happens over a period of time as the brain will continue to increase and
on chronic pain when pain is present quite significantly,
it affects all aspects of life. One sleep for sure,
because you're not able to get comfortable at night tossing and turning,
and so sleep definitely gets disturbed with it. And when sleep gets disturbed,
we know that the body's not in the best shape or body and mind are
not in the best shape to do the job.
So this gets into really kind of a negative cycle.
She says, chronic pain can lead to lack of sleep and anxiety can develop.
She says sleep is critical to both mental and physical health. Dr.
Stanislaus says it's best for farmers to get medical care for back pain or
any pain at the beginning.
Even if it's a little strain,
so that things such as physical therapy can really strengthen those muscles and
prevent pain,
and also stretching and other kind of exercises that
physical therapy can teach us to prevent us from developing
chronic pain.
Once pain starts, she says, the mind dwells on.
Sometimes people turn to alcohol to dull the pain.
Alcohol can have that sedative effect can make them feel kind of numb.
The pain temporarily, it doesn't get rid of it,
it numbs it temporarily and helps 'em sleep.
And then there is a use over reliance on substances such as alcohol,
and that can then start creating another set of problems.
She recommends seeing a doctor and physical therapist to retrain the muscles to
alleviate pain.
She says physical therapy does not take up a lot of a farmer's time.
It doesn't take a lot actually, once you learn it,
it probably just 10 minutes in the morning and 10 minutes at night before going
to bed. If done consistently,
you would not need hours and hours of physical therapy.
The disaster distress helpline is 1-800-985-FIVE 9 9 0 or visit
dmh.mo.gov for more information.
I'm Julie Harker with Managing for Profit on Brownfield.

Mental health stigma still exists, but some young people are working to face it.
Head on.
I'm Julie Harker with Managing for Profit on Brownfield Madeline Elam with the
Columbia FF. A chapter says,
A lot has changed about the stigma since middle school.
Here lately in high school,
especially after the pandemic started and we all had the huge quarantine in
school, got put online.
A lot of me and my friends and just people in general are a lot more open about
the mental health struggles.
Openly talk about therapists and getting help and what's worked for them the.
Best. More coming up on Brownfield.
Spending nine hours on a roof during a flood,
looking for someone after a tornado.
Losing your home and your crops getting trapped in your car during a snow storm.
When a disaster or a traumatic event happens, thoughts, emotions,
and symptoms can linger, but you can get the help you need to cope and recover.
Disaster related trauma looks different for everyone.
Get help today from the Missouri Department of Mental Health.
Learn about trauma-informed care@dmh.mo.gov.
After a natural disaster, it's common to feel things you normally wouldn't.
Disaster related trauma looks different for everyone. You aren't alone.
There are people who can help you work through it.
The Missouri Department of Mental Health can connect you to local providers and
resources to help you cope after a disaster.
Find the help you need and learn about trauma-informed
care@dmh.mo.gov.
Madeline Elam had a big letdown in the spring of 2021,
which led to her counseling.
My contest team, we made it to state and we placed first at state,
but the day before,
I think either a day or two before all the scores and stuff were finalized for
nationals and just the Missouri State FFA convention.
Our team got bumped to third place because I think another FFA
chapter in not another FFA chapter in Missouri had appealed our win.
So we got bumped to third.
All the hours she said they spent practicing and all the hard work was just a
huge disappointment, but through counseling she had a new change of mind. I.
Really just had to think of it like everything happens for a reason type thing,
and think of the positives instead of the negatives. Like, yeah,
we weren't going to be able to go to nationals,
but I did get a lot closer with my peers.
I enjoyed waking up early and going to get donuts at Schulte's before we'd go
to contests. Just laughing and youth being around.
I feel like my CDE experience made me appreciate and love FFAA lot more
than I did prior.
She says school by itself is stressful, especially during her senior year. Just.
Thinking about the future stresses me out a lot.
I do a lot of clubs and activity on top of FFA.
I'm in marching band and a few other clubs through school,
but trying to maintain my GPA and take the honors level classes I
take and stay involved in school and have a job on top of that,
it's just pretty stressful and trying to balance all of that can get quite
overwhelming at times.
She writes things down, takes deep breaths, and takes one thing at a time.
She says to reduce her stress.
Elam has fellow FFA students who work on farms who deal with farm stress every
day on.
Top of just schoolwork. They have to wake up early, they work hard all summer.
They have trouble with their crops sometimes,
and it just can be really frustrating for them to have to go through all this on
top of school, making their home life kind of feel like work.
She says the fun times in FFA can help lessen stress.
We'll have tailgates and we have barn warming and
soon upcoming in February,
I think we have national FFA week where we get to go out and have fun.
She says the bottom line is counseling has helped her a lot.
I went from bottling up my feelings substantially in a substantial amount to
actually being able to communicate my feelings and understand my emotions a lot
better.
The Disaster Distress helpline is 1-800-985-FIVE 9 9 0 or
visit dmh.mo.gov for more information.
I'm Julie Harker with Managing for Profit on Brownfield.

A farmer who has struggled with mental health issues wants other farmers to know
they are not alone.
I'm Julie Harker with this Managing for Profit on Brownfield.
Jason Meadows is the owner and founder of the podcast Ag State of Mind. There.
Are people who do care about you and find those people,
and if you're struggling, reach out to them first.
And they may not be the people that are going to help you in the end,
but they can be the people where you start your journey.
More coming up on Brownfield.
Spending nine hours on a roof during a flood,
looking for someone after a tornado,
losing your home and your crops getting trapped in your car during a snowstorm.
When a disaster or a traumatic event happens, thoughts, emotions,
and symptoms can linger, but you can get the help you need to cope and recover.
Disaster related trauma looks different for everyone.
Get help today from the Missouri Department of Mental Health.
Learn about trauma-informed care@dmh.mo.gov.
After a natural disaster, it's common to feel things you normally wouldn't.
Disaster related trauma looks different for everyone. You aren't alone.
There are people who can help you work through it.
The Missouri Department of Mental Health can connect you to local providers and
resources to help you cope after a disaster.
Find the help you need and learn about trauma-Informed
care@dmh.mo.gov.
Jason Meadows says he gets a lot of support from his family, his faith,
and online.
Especially as far as it relates to the agriculture community.
There is a wonderful community of agriculture all around social
media. I found it in Instagram and Twitter.
There's just a wonderful community there that is always willing to help out,
and you'd be amazed if you just kind of put yourself out there.
I was struggling one time and I'd found this small community online,
especially on Twitter,
where I put a tweet out over something I was struggling with and
the overwhelmingly positive response to that,
it was just almost overwhelming,
and you find just such solace in that. So I mean,
that's one place to find community, but also reach out to those around you,
your local ag organizations, your local farm bureau.
Farm Bureau is doing some wonderful work with mental health, and
I think it's there.
You just have to make the effort to go out and try and find that.
Meadows mentioned some of his Go-to online sources of help.
One of my favorite people who has helped me a bunch is Leslie
Kelly.
She is one of the founders of the Do More Agriculture Foundation,
and another friend of mine is a person by the name of Adrian de
Sutter.
It's just this wonderful community that has surrounded AG mental health
online,
and I think one of the biggest things you can do is search the hashtag Ag
mental health. You'll find some wonderful conversation around that.
Meadow says one of the biggest strengths and weaknesses of farmers is their
independence.
That's gotten us through some really,
really tough times and helped us see through till the end,
but we don't want to necessarily ask for outside help because it's
a perceived weakness and whatnot.
And my advice to that is don't let that independence get in the
way of finding help from others.
Because there are so many people who are willing to help judgment free.
There are more people that will support you than you could ever imagine.
The Disaster Distress helpline is 1-800-985-FIVE 9 9 0 or
visit dmh.mo.gov for more information.
I'm Julie Harker with Managing for Profit on Brownfield.

Farmers are pretty resilient. But when faced with a natural disaster,
it can be too much to overcome without some help.
I'm Julie Harker with Managing for Profit on Brownfield Del Camp is the Chief
Clinical Officer at Ozark Center. They're.
Used to things that are in many ways outside of their control,
whether it's rain, too much rain one year, too little rain one year.
They're used to being somewhat resilient and there are things that they've been
able to lean in on order to survive certain things that happen year to year.
More coming up on Brownfield.
Spending nine hours on a roof during a flood,
looking for someone after a tornado,
losing your home and your crops getting trapped in your car during a snow storm.
When a disaster or a traumatic event happens, thoughts, emotions,
and symptoms can linger, but you can get the help you need to cope and recover.
Disaster related trauma looks different for everyone.
Get help today from the Missouri Department of Mental Health.
Learn about trauma-informed care@dmh.mo.gov.
After a natural disaster, it's common to feel things you normally wouldn't.
Disaster related trauma looks different for everyone. You aren't alone.
There are people who can help you work through it.
The Missouri Department of Mental Health can connect you to local providers and
resources to help you cope after a disaster.
Find the help you need and learn about trauma-informed
care@dmh.mo.gov.
Del Cap says,
natural disasters on the farm can be overwhelming no matter how resilient the
farm community is.
When something just overwhelming happens that affects broad
swaths, if you will, of local folks,
then it gets very difficult because there really isn't someone else that you can
lean on during those times.
And you feel bad talking to someone else about your difficulties because they're
experiencing those difficulties as well.
And sometimes they feel a little like they don't want to burden other people
with what happens in the midst of a disaster.
And yet we know being able to talk about those,
their thoughts and their feelings is an important part of being able to recover
from a disaster experience.
Debbie Fitzgerald, the Director of Crisis Services at Ozark Center,
has been helping people through everything from the Joplin tornado of 2011,
the floods of 2017 and 19. And now COD. She says,
everyone is affected by natural disasters even if they weren't directly
impacted.
Your home is still intact.
You don't know anybody that passed from whatever the disaster is,
but you're watching it on television, you're reading it online,
you're hearing about it from others at your place of worship.
You faith-based community. You may be hearing about it on your job.
So quite literally, everyone in a community is impacted.
And in the beginning we kind of had numb and stunned
phase,
and then people eventually start coming out of that and
those that can help, what we find will start helping.
Fitzgerald is part of the Show Me Hope team that responds with support.
But the key is that most people do and can
recover should they have a little bout of bump in the road,
that they need some extra support. It doesn't require formal treatment.
It can be that my Show Me Hope Team talks to you on the phone or
by Zoom or comes to you,
or you meet at a public place and you sit down and you talk about how you've
been feeling.
And these are some strategies we can try and see if that helps.
And then they check back.
The Disaster Distress Helpline is 1-800-985-FIVE 9 9 0
or visit dmh.mo.gov for more information.
I'm Julie Harker with Managing for Profit on Brownfield.

The stress of farming is made worse in a natural disaster,
which can lead to mental health struggles.
Knowing there is help can get people past the stigma.
I'm Julie Ger with this Managing for Profit on Brownfield.
Michelle Horvath is with Compass Health Services.
Stigma plays a role in society,
folks feeling pressure from society and then from their own self of thinking.
If I reach out,
maybe it means that I'm weak or I'm not capable of handling things,
and that's totally misperception.
More coming up on Brownfield.
Spending nine hours on a roof during a flood,
looking for someone after a tornado,
losing your home and your crops getting trapped in your car during a snow storm.
When a disaster or a traumatic event happens, thoughts, emotions,
and symptoms can linger, but you can get the help you need to cope and recover.
Disaster related trauma looks different for everyone.
Get help today from the Missouri Department of Mental Health.
Learn about trauma-informed care@dmh.mo.gov.
After a natural disaster, it's common to feel things you normally wouldn't.
Disaster related trauma looks different for everyone. You aren't alone.
There are people who can help you work through it.
The Missouri Department of Mental Health can connect you to local providers and
resources to help you cope after a disaster.
Find the help you need and learn about trauma-informed
care@dmh.mo.gov.
Michelle Horvath with Compass Health Network says it's okay to not be okay,
but further it's not okay to not ask for help.
Agencies and mental health professionals are always working at and trying to
think of ways to break down that stigma and let folks know that it's
okay to, it's not even just okay.
It's encouraged for everyone to have that objective ear,
someone to listen to them and be able to reach out when something doesn't feel
right or when you're not feeling quite like yourself or quite like how you'd
like to feel. Just because you've reached out doesn't mean that.
I know there's a lot of folks who say things like,
I would never want to take medication or, I'm not comfortable with that,
and that's not going to be something that's pushed on. Treatment's,
not pushed on an individual. It's really just there as a supportive tool.
She says, people get medical help for a medical problem,
and the same should go for mental problems.
Whether it's,
there's such a variety of reasons why you would reach out for behavioral health
care, but just feeling down,
feeling ultra stressed and burnt out feeling just not, again,
not kind of like yourself. You want to regain some energy and
feelings of wellness.
Feeling like you can calm your mind down sometimes just depending on what's
going on,
knowing that reaching out is just the same as reaching out to any medical
provider. You're reaching out saying, Hey,
this feels off to me and I'm looking for some guidance or for some
support. In the process of working through it.
Often people abuse substances to mask the symptoms they are feeling,
but that is only temporary.
Once you engage in treatment, you're going to have additional things,
talk therapy, things like that,
that are going to try to dive in a little deeper,
not mask those surface feelings that are there, but really get in,
help resolve,
help address and guide through to a healthy outcome,
utilizing more healthy outlets to treat those symptoms and really
to get to the bottom of it versus just a temporary bandaid,
if you will.
She says, it just takes one call or walking in for help.
If it feels important to you.
It's important to us and we want to be with you to walk through the process
and get you what you need to feel fulfilled and be back
to how you prefer to function.
And she says Everyone will be helped whether they have insurance or not.
I'm Julie Harker with this Managing Mental Health,
managing for Profit on Brownfield.

Farmers who experience a natural disaster on their farms can often experience
depression, but need to know there is help.
I'm Julie Harker with Managing Mental Health on this Brownfield Managing for
Profit. Tony Kolic is with COMT Tree,
a community mental health treatment provider. He says,
trauma can show itself in the body through fatigue and aches and pains,
but it can also affect the mind.
Where you are feeling down isolated.
You're having difficulty concentrating, difficulty sleeping,
your appetite's changing.
More, coming up on Brownfield.
Spending nine hours on a roof during a flood,
looking for someone after a tornado,
losing your home and your crops getting trapped in your car during a snow storm.
When a disaster or a traumatic event happens, thoughts, emotions,
and symptoms can linger, but you can get the help you need to cope and recover.
Disaster related trauma looks different for everyone.
Get help today from the Missouri Department of Mental Health.
Learn about trauma-informed care@dmh.mo.gov.
After a natural disaster, it's common to feel things you normally wouldn't.
Disaster related trauma looks different for everyone. You aren't alone.
There are people who can help you work through it.
The Missouri Department of Mental Health can connect you to local providers and
resources to help you cope after a disaster.
Find the help you need and learn about trauma-informed
care@dmh.mo.gov.
Tony Kolic says, psychotherapy can help as can medication for depression,
but he says, those do take time and trial and error.
If it does get to the point of self-harm. He says,
farmers and their families should be aware of the signs and seek help.
Usual hobbies and life are changing,
and you do not enjoy them anymore.
If this persists for a period of time over two weeks,
then there's a concern and something that we should be looking into.
We all experience depression to some degree.
It's just a matter of how long we experience it and how much it impacts our
everyday life.
When we start having some thoughts of self harm,
we find that we're not seeing the person hardly at all.
They're isolating more.
Their mood seems to be more depressed. Again,
if we start seeing thoughts of self-harm or suicide,
it's time to reach out. I mean,
hopefully before then we're reaching out and we're kind of seeing it,
but we get so caught on life sometimes, oh, I got this. It'll pass.
I can take it.
So hopefully those who are around us are paying attention and know what to do.
Also, in response.
Andrea Kunio,
licensed professional counselor with COMT Tree says It's very normal to
experience depression after a disaster, and often anxiety goes with it.
We can help with some short-term interventions,
but if those are not helping and the symptoms are
continuing, it's causing continued issues in a person's life,
it's really important to seek out additional help.
A good place to start, she says, is with your family doctor.
Most family providers are very comfortable in treating more minor cases of
depression and anxiety,
and it's great place to start and just get another opinion on what next steps
might be.
They can also then connect people to additional resources or others that can
help further or more specialized.
There's also a lot of great helplines available.
The SAMHSA has a disaster distressed hotline that's available through phone,
texting, or through the web that's easily accessible and available 24 7.
That's a great place to start as well,
to just have someone to talk to about what you're experiencing and then
get some help on what the next steps might be.
That number is 1-800-985-FIVE 9 9 0,
or text mo safe to 7 4 1 7 4 1.
I'm Julie Harker with Managing for Profit on Brownfield.

When natural disasters strike farms, it's not just the farms that suffer.
I'm Julie Harger with this Managing for Profit on Brownfield. Becky Geer,
deputy Director of the Office of Disaster Services at the Missouri Department of
Mental Health says,
trauma is the body and mind's reaction to a very terrible event.
There can be mental and physical health complications or consequences that
come with your experience to a traumatic event such as a disaster.
Strategies to get beyond trauma. Coming up on Brownfield.
Spending nine hours on a roof during a flood,
looking for someone after a tornado, losing your home in your crops,
getting trapped in your car during a snow storm.
When a disaster or a traumatic event happens, thoughts, emotions,
and symptoms can linger, but you can get the help you need to cope and recover.
Disaster related trauma looks different for everyone.
Get help today from the Missouri Department of Mental Health.
Learn about trauma-informed care@dmh.mo.gov.
After a natural disaster, it's common to feel things you normally wouldn't.
Disaster related trauma looks different for everyone. You aren't alone.
There are people who can help you work through it.
The Missouri Department of Mental Health can connect you to local providers and
resources to help you cope after a disaster.
Find the help you need and learn about trauma-informed
care@dmh.mo.gov.
Becky gear with the Missouri Department of Mental Health says,
our bodies and minds can react to.
Stress. These are very common reactions that we're going to have to an uncommon
situation like a tornado, a flood, any other sort of disaster.
And so we have to really understand that these reactions may look different at
different times. They can come and go.
They can really impact our ability to carry out our daily activities,
and that's when we really need to start thinking about getting assistance.
Physical reactions are very real.
With physical reactions. You may be having gastrointestinal issues,
you may have headaches or migraines. You could have tremors or twitching,
sleep issues, autoimmune disorder or dysfunctions.
We can have any of those types of physical reactions,
and sometimes those are reactions that you may have on a good day,
but they can be compounded by this traumatic event.
And emotions can be overwhelmed.
You may be having anxiety or more fear.
Maybe we're having trouble concentrating or making decisions.
Sometimes we call it brain fog.
You just feel like you're sitting there and you don't really know what to do,
but you know need to do something,
but you can't really think about what it is that you need to do the next step.
And behaviorally, we may find ourselves turning to more substances,
using substances that we haven't necessarily used before,
or maybe increasing use of substances.
But she says we can mitigate trauma symptoms.
So you can mitigate this through self-care, through stress management.
We know that we need to eat right, drink water, get enough sleep.
Those are all things we all know, but there's more to it than just that.
We need to be doing things that recharge us, that fill us up,
that we feel like we are fulfilled by.
So that may be just taking your dog on a walk. It might be sitting outside,
drinking a cup of coffee and watching the sunrise.
She says, the last stage of trauma recovery is a reconstruction.
And that simply is just, I'm rebuilding my life.
I'm determined to move forward.
I'm understanding that this is maybe where I'm going to be for a while and I've
got to move forward.
Gear says,
every county has community mental health centers and there are helplines for
disaster and suicide distress. Go to dmh.mo.gov.
I'm Julie Harker with Managing for Profit on Brownfield.

Farming can be stressful, especially with a natural disaster. Hi,
I'm Julie Harker on Brownfield with this Managing for Profit about Managing
mental health. Rachel Jones,
director of the Disaster Response State Grant with the Missouri Department of
Mental Health says they're contracting with 26 counties affected by 2019
disasters.
Educate them about mental health and substance use disaster recovery,
and really try to connect them to resources and information that can help
communities recover and thrive after disasters.
More after this.
Spending nine hours on a roof during a flood looking for someone after a
tornado,
losing your home and your crops getting trapped in your car during a snow storm.
When a disaster or a traumatic event happens, thoughts, emotions,
and symptoms can linger, but you can get the help you need to cope and recover.
Disaster related trauma looks different for everyone.
Get help today from the Missouri Department of Mental Health.
Learn about trauma-informed care@dmh.mo.gov.
After a natural disaster, it's common to feel things you normally wouldn't.
Disaster related trauma looks different for everyone. You aren't alone.
There are people who can help you work through it.
The Missouri Department of Mental Health can connect you to local providers and
resources to help you cope after a disaster.
Find the help you need and learn about trauma-Informed
care@dmh.mo.gov.
Rachel Jones with the Missouri Department of Mental Health says,
small towns have a special superpower strength of community in families
and between neighbors. They.
Help each other out. They have a strong kinship network typically,
so that just means that when a family is in need,
you often will see people rallying around them and keeping things
within the family, or a neighboring family comes in to help out.
You have different generations stepping in to help care for kids or help
care for the elderly that are impacted,
and that's a little different when you go to larger areas where people usually
hire services or they have access to those types of.
Things. She says that closeness is critical in improving mental.
Health,
and that builds up a family's strength and almost buffers them so that
when a natural disaster or a stress occurs in the family or in the
community,
they've already got that system of support around them that they know they can
rely on. They know how to access them quickly,
and so that is a strength that protects them. That's a protective factor.
State mental health services are available in every Missouri County,
but there's also training available for anyone who wants to lend a hand.
For us. In particularly with this grant,
we're promoting Mental Health First Aid,
and that's a training program that gives lay people the basic
understanding and knowledge they need about mental health so that they can help
neighbors, they can help their friends and their colleagues,
and support them when they need mental health support.
She says, no, you don't have to be a mental health expert.
You get people who are non-traditional helpers that step into
roles and they really help stabilize and support the
community.
So just because you're not a trained mental health professional doesn't
mean that you can't support your community's mental health.
You see it in a school system a lot with small schools that are like a K through
12 school that maybe only has one school nurse the whole way through.
And that school nurse is also helping with behavior.
They're also helping with making sure kids have food to be sent home.
For more information,
go to dmh.mo.gov and the Mental Health
First Aid page. I'm Julie Harker.
Staying with us for our Managing for Profit Managing Mental Health series.
I'm Julie Harker on Brownfield.