Performing Department
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Non Technical Summary
Agricultural producers in the North Central region experience anxiety, depression, substance use, and death by suicide atdisproportionately higher rates than the general population. The University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign mobilized partners inthe North Central region to form the North Central Farm and Ranch Stress Assistance Center to create and expand stressmanagement and mental health resources and services to agricultural producers and advocates and stakeholders who supportagricultural producers. The key target audiences for this project include individuals engaged in production agriculture withspecific emphasis on producers (male and female operators, farmworkers), farm youth and farm families, and allies ofagricultural producers (specifically agribusiness professionals and healthcare providers). The North Central Farm and RanchStress Assistance Center will expand programs that provide professional agricultural behavioral health intervention, supportfarm telephone hotlines and websites, and provide needed training and resources for producers, agriculture-relatedoccupations, and individuals who support producers. The project will increase community capacity and healthcare providers'readiness to respond to producers' mental health needs and potentially increase agricultural productivity by reducingpresenteeism, absenteeism, and work-related injuries.
Animal Health Component
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Research Effort Categories
Basic
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Applied
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Developmental
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Goals / Objectives
The University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign mobilized partners in the North Central region to form the North Central Farmand Ranch Stress Assistance Center (NCFRSAC) to create and expand stress management and mental health resources andservices to agricultural producers and advocates and stakeholders who support agricultural producers.The NCFRSAC will: 1) Expand farm telephone hotlines and websites, 2) Expand programs that provide professional agriculturalbehavioral health intervention, and 3) Provide needed training and resources for producers, agriculture-related occupations, andindividuals who support producers. NCFRSAC will provide public value by expanding community capacity and healthcareproviders' readiness to respond to producers' mental health needs and potentially increase agricultural productivity by reducingpresenteeism, absenteeism, and work-related injuries.
Project Methods
The NCFRSAC will partner with key network collaborators in the North Central region to achieve project objectives. Key networkcollaborators (KNCs) include: University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (UIUC) and University of Illinois Extension; Iowa StateUniversity Extension; Purdue University Extension; Kansas State University Extension; Michigan State University Extension;University of Minnesota Extension; University of Missouri Extension; University of Nebraska Extension; North Dakota StateUniversity Extension; Ohio State University Extension; South Dakota State University Extension; University of WisconsinExtension; National AgrAbility; Progressive Agriculture Foundation (PAF); Marbleseed; Jewish Farmer Network; Queer Farmer Convergence; and the Central States Center for Agricultural Safety and Health (CS-CASH). The NCFRSAC will formalize collaborations between network members, provide a shared mission, andincrease and enhance opportunities to support producers and those in related occupations.Key network partners will collaborate to 1) Expand farm telephone hotlines and websites, 2) Expand programs that provideprofessional agricultural behavioral health intervention, and 3) Provide needed training and resources for producers, agriculture-related occupations, and individuals who support producers within their respective states.1) Expand farm telephone hotlines and websites: The NCFRSAC will continue to support the Iowa Concern Hotline (ICH) as a regionalhotline for farmers experiencing stress. ICH will offer 24/7 stress assistance counseling to producers in all NCR states. KNCs will provide ICH with a list of the KNC's own state resources for non-Iowa callers. Telephone helplines will also be supported in North Dakota (FirstLink) and Nebraska (NE Rural Response Hotline).The NCFRSAC will updated and maintain a centralized clearinghouse website of regional stress and mental health resources andlinks state-specific clearinghouse websites. All KNCs will contribute information about existing farmer assistance programs intheir states. Interest groups will identify and contribute information about relevant existing farmer assistance programs.2) Expand programs that provide professional agricultural behavioral health intervention: Three KNCs (ND, MO, IL) willwork with nonprofit and healthcare organizations to provide mental health therapies for agricultural producers and their families.Missouri CES will offer the evidence-based intervention Skills for Psychological Recovery (SPR), which is a program tailored tothe needs of producers and their families. ND CES will partner with Lutheran Social Services of ND to expand counselingservices to distressed farmers, ranchers, and families. Illinois Extension will partner with mental health providers to expand an existing voucher program for eligible farmers to obtain up to three hours of professional counseling.3) Provide needed training and resources for producers, agriculture-related occupations, and individuals who supportproducers within their respective states: NCFRSAC plans to offer five types of training for advocates of producers and thoseindividuals and entities that assist producers, including in crisis situations: Mental Health First Aid (MHFA), Youth Mental HealthFirst Aid (YMHFA), Question, Persuade, Refer (QPR), Communicating with Farmers under Stress (CFS), and other evidence-based programs.