Covid- 19 – When Stress is More Than a Season
The National Cattlemens’ Beef Association (NCBA) recently sponsored a webinar on mental health for ranchers and farmers. Presenters Adrienne De Sutter, M.S.Ed., Behavioral Health Consultant and Ted Matthews, Director of Minnesota Rural Mental Health are both familiar with mental health issues in the agricultural community. Here are key points from their presentation.
- Question: How do I get someone who needs help, but always refuses, to do something?
- Answer: Tell them you’re concerned. Show compassion for them.
- Tell them you’re not going to judge them.
- Don’t say, “You need help, or advice,” say, “I’m concerned for you.”
- Have a calm conversation with them.
- Signs of Depression
- Cattle not being fed
- Farmstead not kept up
- Irritability/ fatigue
- Changes in sleep or eating
- Isolating/ Lose interest in things you love the most
- Changes in behavior, something is off
- Decline in care of crops
- Sudden weight gain or loss
- Humiliation
Read the complete article in the Spring Issue of The AG Mag,
due out at your favorite social-distancing feed store or grocery in early May.
If you or loved one needs help now:
Call 911 or go to the Emergency Room
Call your primary care doctor
Find a local behavioral health center or go to find treatment near you go to samhsa.gov
Check with health insurance providers to see if they cover teletherapy
Find someone you can connect with, therapists don’t always understand complexities and what your life is like. Find someone you mesh with, if the first one doesn’t work the first time, find another therapist.
Call the National Suicide prevention hotline – 1-800-273-8255
American Farm Bureau – Rural Resilience- https://www.fb.org/programs/rural-resilience/
Sow Hope Grow Hope, for women in ag –www.sowhope.org
