Progress 09/01/22 to 08/31/23
Outputs
Target Audience: Members of the target audience included: Farmers: Men, women, veterans, social disadvantage, disabled, and beginning. Farm and producer families including spouses and youth. Members of the target audience included: Agricultural: Producers, leaders, service providers, workers, government-based agencies, and membership entities. Professionals: Agribusiness, Extension, federal and state government, state vocational rehabilitation, physical health, mental health, agricultural lending, community banking, and clergy. State: Commodity groups, Extension, departments of agriculture, farm bureaus, AgrAbility, 4-H, FFA, departments of labor, crop advisors, agriculture associations, State FFA Associations, mental health organizations, public health departments, Federal: USDA, US Department of Veterans Affairs, FSA, and NRCS. Programs and Committees: Lincoln University Cooperative Extension Innovative Small Farmers' Outreach Program, Missouri AgrAbility Program, Missouri Beginning Farmers and Ranchers Program, Heroes to Hives Program, Nebraska Migrant Education Program, Show-Me Farm Safety Committee, Brain Injury Association of Missouri, agriculture and tourismcommittees, the Farm Family Resource Initiative. Changes/Problems:The following changes or challenges were experienced in the past project year: The IRB at South Dakota State University has experienced some staff changes, so the survey protocol was under review with the IRB for over three months.This delayed the distribution of the survey of agricultural producers. Ohio State University Extension continues to struggle as a new program area to gain momentum around Farm Stress within OSU Extension. There has been more support this past grant reporting year than in the previous year, but there have been challenges in building capacity to deliver programs related to farm stress. Missouri Extension has had difficulty obtainingevaluation for MHFA and YMHFA data from the National Council. Additionally, organizations and agencies have funds and/or grants to provide MHFA and QPR at no charge resulting in more competition and saturating the market. As such, Missouri is using our rural connections to identify niche markets and relying on established relationships to provide MHFA. KansasState University has experienced personnel challenges including the loss of several participating team members to other jobs/organizations. Bradley Dirks, who was working on the grant retired in December 2022. Rachael Clews had some health issues in Fall 2022 that resulted in a necessary surgery in January 2023 and prolonged recovery that put the progress of Kansas' work behind. Michigan State University Extension has experienced staffing challenges including staff turnover, retirements of long-standing and seasoned agricultural educators, and difficulties or delays in filling vacant positions. These staffing changes have resulted in a lack of continuity and stability within the MSU Extension Farm Stress Team. They arealso seeing the end of some state funding that supported a larger farm stress response team in the state. As a result, it has been challenging to maintain consistent support and engagement with the farming community. However, programming numbers are still impressive with a small team on this grant. Internally the team changed up project leadership. In October 2022, MSUrequested a PI change for the funded project. In the year before (2021), our project removed Eric Karbowski (who took a new position with Extension), and in 2022 (this reporting period) we added Drs. Remington Rice and Lauren Kennedy as Co-PIs with Cheryl Eschbach. This added grant leadership with two Extension professionals is assisting in project sustainability and allowing connected, but parallel efforts in growth and changes to the MSU farm stress programs and statewide network. University of Wisconsin Extension was admittingly ambitious in thinking the Canvas course could be completed and piloted in one year. Many team members were learning Canvas, the preferred LMA, and there aremany moving parts with the synchronous/asynchronous aspect of this course.They also experienced challenges in recruiting participants into programs. While farmers say they want in-person programming, they do not seem to be registering for those as they did pre-COVID. This is a challenge experienced by most collaborating partners. What opportunities for training and professional development has the project provided?During the past project year, NCFRSAC partners have provided several opportunities for training and professional development. Iowa State University Extension developed, Relationships Can Heal: Knowing the Farmer Client, and the program was piloted in May 2023. Relationships Can Heal: Knowing the Farmer Client is a curriculum that traines behavioral health and healthcare providers. It reviews barriers to farmers seeking care, the importance of therapeutic alliances and cultural humility, stress and the Midwest producer, the daily life of farming, farming with a disability, and understanding livestock and grain producers.This curriculum was successfully piloted in Iowa City, Iowa in May of 2023 to Iowa mental health and health care providers. NBCC continuing education credits were provided. Pre-to-post evaluations demonstrated that participants could identify agricultural-related suicide risk factors, can distinguish the different stressors determined by different farming and ranching roles, can discuss unique factors and challenges of crop production with my farmer clients, and can discuss unique factors and challenges of livestock production with my farmer clients as a result of the training program. Other partners, including Illinois Extension and South Dakota State University Extension have similar programs and are exploring opportunties to engage in trainings. CS-CASH has provided the region with and insturctor training for Bienvenido, an evidence-based support group program for farmworkers. CS-CASH trained over 10 new instructors in the program, increasing capacity for program delivery in the region. Simiarly, the project supported instructor training for Mental Health First Aid, Youth Mental Helath First Aid, the MSU curriculum (Weathering the Storm, Communicating with Farmers Under Stress, and Mending the Stress Fence). How have the results been disseminated to communities of interest?During year 3, results were disseminated to communities of interest in a variety of ways. As a region, NCFRSAC offered 77 general presentations about state/NCFRSAAC resources to 7,675 attendees. Additionally, partners within the region have created 8 audio/video resources, 40 factsheets or informational handouts, and exhibited at 45 unique events (fairs, tradeshows, etc.) reaching 293,755 agricultural producers, farmworkers, and agricultural supports. The University of Illinois disseminated information at four different farm shows and state conferences, including the Illinois Farm Bureau Annual Meeting which attracts over 1,500 agricultural producers. Extension Specialists also offered farm stress and mental health bespoke programs as part of the Illinois Crop Advantage Series during the winter of 2023. CS-CASH offered presentations at farmworker-serving organizations and practice-focused conferences.Presentations at professional/research-related conferences include: (1) Interstate Migrant Education Council, (2) Midwest Migrant Stream Forum, and the (3) Cambio de Colores Conference. MU Extension disseminated our results and accomplishments monthly during face-to-face programmatic meetings, electronic communications, and updates to administrators, collaborative partners, stakeholders, and intended audiences. Missouri also provided updates during NC FRSANC Community of Interest meetings, newsletters, and program presentations. Lastly, the College of Agriculture and Natural Resource and MU Health and Human Sciences media specialists facilitated press releases and marketing strategies. They maintained social media outreach activities to share stories to youth, farm families, stakeholders, and cooperators, information about upcoming programs, and marketing Coping with Stress on the Farm teletherapy one-on-one counseling sessions. Kansas State University Extension wrote and shared articles about the mental health and well-being of a rural or agricultural readership. National AgrAbility archived versions of each webinar are posted on the National AgrAbility website at http://www.agrability.org/training-category/archived/ and on the National AgrAbility YouTube channel at https://www.youtube.com/c/NationalAgrAbility/. All who register for each webinar receive a link to the archived version once it is posted. The archive is also promoted in the AgrAbility e-Note monthly newsletter. Michigan State University Extension increased awareness and knowledge of farm stress management and mental health resources among farmers, strengthened connections between farmers and support organizations, improved access to mental health resources and teletherapy for farmers in need, contributed to the resilience and well-being of the agricultural community in Michigan, and produced an impact report for the public in 2023: https://www.canr.msu.edu/resources/supporting-michigan-s-agriculture-community What do you plan to do during the next reporting period to accomplish the goals?In the next year (no-cost extension) NCFRSAC collaborating partners will continue to deliver on the goals and objectives established in 2020. Specifically, CS-CASHwill develop multilingual stress, mental health, and cultural healing information for farmworkers and their families, train 10 additional Bienvenido facilitators and 5 additional QPR facilitators from around the region and implement Bienvenido program at 3 sites throughout the region. OhioState University Extension will host more dinner theaters around other areas of the state. One has been held in the upper northeast portion of the state with success and hope to build on that. Ohio State Extension will continue to host MHFA with a shift to targeting our audience. University of Illinois Extension will expand MHFA offerings to include Mental Health First Aid for Spanish Speaking Communities. Three instructors will be trained to offer the evidence-based program in Spanish. This will fill an important gap in starting to address farmworker stress and mental health in Illinois. University of MissouriExtension will provide Mental Health First Aid face-to-face workshops and virtual workshops as well as partner with MU Psychological Services Clinic (PSC) to provide teletherapy counseling to assist farmers, ranchers, farmworkers, and immediate family members.Missouri Extension will also develop a 2024 Mental Health Awareness Month Toolkit which will include mental health resources and information about behavioral health services for urban agriculture, limited-resource farmers, ranchers, farmworkers, BIOPC farmers/ranchers, veterans, and families. Kansas State University Extension will create a National Suicide Prevention Month social media campaign and news articleand continue the expansion of certified QPR instructors outside/within the K-State Research and Extension organization. Michigan State University of Extension will expand outreach efforts to increase the reach of educational materials and resources by participating in more farmer markets, agricultural conferences, and community events. This will help connect with a broader audience of farmers and agricultural professionals.They will also strengthen partnerships with agricultural organizations, Extension offices, and advisory boards to integrate farm stress management and mental health resources into their programs and services. Promote collaboration among stakeholders and organizations, implement various community-based programs and policies, and explore opportunities for effective suicide risk detection and intervention. Strengthen partnerships with mental health professionals and organizations to ensure farmers have access to appropriate and timely mental health support. The University of Wisconsin Extension will complete and pilot Navigating Your Ag Business: From Stress to Success. Goal: 15 farms (approximately 45 participants); Pilot will run from January - March 2024. University of Minnesota Extension will develop mental health educational reinforcements for youth and families will support and reinforce educational concepts and tools along with provide a variety of educational resources based on the current and emerging needs of each community.?Examples include youth and parent mindfulness activities, suicide education, parenting support, opioid/substance use and recovery resources, and local mental health resources to be delivered in a variety of ways including print, social media and online. Purdue Extension we will continue to support the virtual training for mental health providers, work with WIA to make the farm women survey actionable, continue the podcast, and continue website and social media presence.
Impacts
What was accomplished under these goals?
The North Central Farm and Ranch Stress Assistance Network (NCFRSAC) accomplished the following objectives between September 1, 2022 - August 31, 2023. 1) Expand farm telephone hotlines and websites: In the year, the Iowa Concern Hotline responded to 5,365 calls. Of those calls, 5,078 were from Iowa. From the North Central Region, 110 were from Wisconsin, 28 from Nebraska, 27 from Illinois, 13 from Minnesota, 10 from Kansas, 9 from Indiana, 8 from Michigan, 5 from Missouri, 5 from South Dakota, and 1 from North Dakota. Iowa Concern also received other calls from Alabama, Arizona, California, Colorado, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maryland, Nevada, Oregon, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, and Virginia. Twenty-eight calls were from non-specified locations. The NCFRSAC maintained the NCR Clearinghouse website (www.farmstress.org). The site includes over 110 farm, ranch, and farmworker-specific resources available for download or viewing, as well as a list of state-specific farm telephone helplines and hotlines (Nebraska and North Dakota, for example). In Year 3, reports describing mental health, substance use, chronic health conditions, and barriers to mental health care among farmers were published for each state in the region. These reports were based on the regional needs assessment conducted in year 1. In addition, the Central States Center for Agricultural Safety and Health (CS-CASH) developed a searchable list of multilingual mental/behavioral healthcare providers throughout the North Central region: https://lookerstudio.google.com/u/0/reporting/649a35e7-81af-4ca8-bba0-64b36e360e49 2) Expand programs that provide professional agricultural behavioral health intervention: Various partners in the NCFRSAC have been expanding programs that provide professional agricultural behavioral health interventions. Specifically, South Dakota State University Extension is in the final phase of the needs assessment involved distributing a survey to approximately 14,000 producers. The survey included instruments that measure depression, anxiety, suicide risk, coping behaviors, alcohol use, and opioid use. This information, like the regional needs assessment, will inform programs for mental health providers and identify opportunities and barriers to producers' engaging in professional behavioral health services. University of Missouri Extension partnered with the Missouri University Psychology Department to offer five free teletherapy sessions to help farmers, ranchers, and their families cope with anxiety and stress related to the challenges of farm/ranch and agricultural livelihood and lifestyle. Farmers, ranchers, and their allies completed 107 therapy sessions. Similarly, North Dakota State University Extension partnered with Together Counseling and supported 761 hours of teletherapy and 348 hours of in-person sessions to agricultural producers in North Dakota. 3) Provide needed training and resources for producers, agriculture-related occupations, and individuals who support producers: In year 3 of the project, all partners have engaged in providing resources and training programs for people engaged in agriculture and those who support people in agricultural occupations. Nine NCFRSAC partners (WI CES, OH CES, NE CES, KS CES, SD CES, ND CES, IL CES, and MO CES) trained 1,245 agricultural supports in Mental Health First Aid. Additional programs for agricultural supports included the COMET training (116 trained), Mending the Stress Fence (593 trained), QPR (845 trained), Relationships Can Heal (11 mental health providers trained), Communicating with Farmers Under Stress (593 trained), Youth Mental Health First Aid (304 trained). Among MHFA participants in Missouri, 100% of participants reported that because of the training, they feel more confident that they will reach out to someone who may be dealing with a mental health problem, substance use challenge, or crisis and offer a distressed person basic "first aid" level information and reassurance about mental health and substance use challenges. Ohio State CES and the Ohio State Farm Stress worked together with the Ashtabula County ANR Educator to host the first Mental Health Dinner Theater in the state. Collaboratively the Educator was able to recruit his local Farm Bureau, and local mental health agencies to be a part of the event. Farm Bureau and other Farm Service providers assisted as sponsors, and the mental health agencies shared their resources at the end of the production. An evaluation was collected at the end, results shared over 80% reported the event as a success. 90% reported they learned something new, and they would attend something similar in the future. CS-CASH conducted 1 Youth Mental Health First Aid training, 5 Mental Health First Aid trainings, and 2 QPR training with farmworker-serving organizations to better prepare community people and non-mental health professionals to respond to mental health crises among farmworkers. CS-CASH also hosted a facilitator training for the Bienvenido program and certified 10 new facilitators. Iowa State University Extension developed, Relationships Can Heal: Knowing the Farmer Client, and the program was piloted in May 2023. Relationships Can Heal: Knowing the Farmer Client is a curriculum jointly developed by Iowa State University and the University of Iowa. The curriculum targets behavioral health and healthcare providers.Pre-to-post evaluations demonstrated that participants could identify agricultural-related suicide risk factors, can distinguish the different stressors determined by different farming and ranching roles, can discuss unique factors and challenges of crop production with my farmer clients, and can discuss unique factors and challenges of livestock production with my farmer clients as a result of the training program. With this regional center funding, Michigan State University Extension presented at multiple conferences and events (in-person and online) to educate farmers on farm stress management, succession planning, and business management tool. MSU provided 49 learning events reaching 1,117 adults. In addition to farmer/grower/rancher audiences, the MSU team also presented to other Extension Educators in Michigan and in Pennsylvania and they also reached several industry professionals employed by the Michigan Department of Agriculture and Rural Development. The MSU team provided direct support and assistance to numerous Michigan farmers and farm families seeking financial and business decision-making tools. Additional meetings occur between Extension staff (Agriculture and Health team members) to prepare each other for meetings with farmers and farm businesses that are not counted as programs or meetings in the grant activity reports. This additional coordination and communication among Extension professionals can be noted as time working on grant objectives. The National AgrAbility Program's primary task for year 3 of the North Central Farm and Ranch Stress Assistance Center grant was to organize, conduct, and evaluate quarterly webinars related to farm stress issues. Three such webinars have been held during the official project year, and a fourth is tentatively scheduled for August 31, 2023. Each quarterly webinar was attended by over 90 participants. Each webinar was promoted via multiple channels, including a listserv that currently comprises more than 6,800 email addresses, the monthly AgrAbility e-Note e-newsletter (with a current distribution of approximately 390), and National AgrAbility's social media pages on Facebook and Twitter. National AgrAbility also conducted pre-webinar sessions with presenters to help minimize technical problems.
Publications
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Progress 09/01/21 to 08/31/22
Outputs
Target Audience:Members of the target audience included: Farmers: Men, women, veterans, social disadvantage, disabled, and beginning. Farm and producer families including spouses and youth. Members of the target audience included: Agricultural: Producers, leaders, service providers, workers, government-based agencies, and membership entities. Professionals: Agribusiness, Extension, federal and state government, state vocational rehabilitation, physical health, mental health, agricultural lending, community banking, and clergy. State: Commodity groups, Extension, departments of agriculture, farm bureaus, AgrAbility, 4-H, FFA, departments of labor, crop advisors, agriculture associations, State FFA Associations, mental health organizations, public health departments, Federal: USDA, US Department of Veterans Affairs, FSA, and NRCS. Programs and Committees: Lincoln University Cooperative Extension Innovative Small Farmers' Outreach Program, Missouri AgrAbility Program, Missouri Beginning Farmers and Ranchers Program, Heroes to Hives Program, Nebraska Migrant Education Program, Show-Me Farm Safety Committee, Brain Injury Association of Missouri, agriculture and tourism committees, the Farm Family Resource Initiative. Changes/Problems:North Central Farm and Ranch Stress Assistance Center (NC FRSAC) key network collaborators (KNCs) experienced several challenges in Year Twoof the project. The 15 partnering organizations that are delivering, developing, and expanding farm stress and mental health resources and services in the 12-state region, encountered problems that impacted intended reach, rate of expenditure, and initiatives. Many of them reported problems and challenges are related to COVID-19, which has continued to cause disruption especially within organizations. All challenges are categorized and described below. Project Support: Several KNCs have experienced delays in programming, service delivery, and resource development as a result of staffing shortages due to hiring freezes, retirements, or turnover. In the past year, Cooperative Extension Services across the region have incentivized retirements, which has resulted in reduced capacity and gaps in program specialists. At University of Missouri, the loss of campus faculty and field specialists associated with the project has resulted in the decision not to adapt a Farmer Friendly Taking Care of You (TCoY), an educational program that teaching helpful concepts and practical stress management strategies. Similarly, a new Extension model in Wisconsin has reduced the number of educators who are focusing on farm business management, which reduced the number of farm operations that could be served by the farm financial curriculum developed, despite interest in the program. In response, Wisconsin Extension plans to convert the piloted curriculum into an asynchronous and synchronous online Canvas course. This will provide more opportunities for those who cannot travel to meeting locations and reduces the need for more facilitators/instructors. Additionally, CS-CASH was not able to hire a graduate research assistant due to visa processing issues which significantly delayed some activities in the workplan. Competing projects: Several KNCs are participating in or leading additional farm and ranch stress assistance efforts in partnership with their state departments of agriculture. The increased attention, enthusiasm, and effort around farm stress and mental health is appreciated, however, it does create challenges for team members that are asked to serve or lead in several capacities across the programs. Programming: NC FRSAC partners have continued to experience challenges related to programming. Evolving waves of COVID-19 across the region required some programs pivot to online due to in-person restrictions. These pivots often resulted in lower-than-expected participants and in some cases, cancelled programs or classes. Several KNCs experienced challenges in recruiting and maintaining instructors for key mental health programs including Mental Health First Aid (MHFA) and QPR. In addition, recruiting participants into these classes is becoming challenging, perhaps due to conflicting priorities and time demands. Several KNCs are partnering with commodity groups and other agricultural organizations to offer in-house training programs. Various program platforms, including the online platform for MHFA, continue to challenge instructors and administrators alike. Two KNCs had planned to develop agricultural literacy programs for healthcare providers to increase understanding of agricultural occupations among physicians, nurses, social workers, etc. Iowa State University has experienced several delays in developing their curriculum due to the complexity and breadth of the issue, however, will pilot the program early in Year Three. University of Wisconsin Extension recognizes there are several online farm culture trainings available and have decided to offer scholarships to providers in Wisconsin to complete an existing training course as opposed to creating a new course. Clearinghouse: NC FRSAC continued to experience challenges in maintaining the clearinghouse website. Available resources are constantly being made available which required substantial time committed to routine website maintenance. Furthermore, due to the sustained demand for online content creators and web developers, recruiting and retaining a website manager has been challenging. In response, we are exploring opportunities to develop website maintenance skills internally. Evaluation: Various training programs have standardized evaluations to measure impact and outcomes, such as MHFA and YHFA. However, there have been challenges in obtaining some evaluation information for some programs from the National Council for Mental Wellbeing. This has not changed outcomes, but has continued to delay reporting of program outcomes and impact. Limitations to professional behavioral health services evaluation in Year Twoinclude lack of standardization in evaluation outcomes across states and partners, which has been challenging to facilitate due to competing priories and capacity to collect evaluation data. What opportunities for training and professional development has the project provided? The North Central Farm and Ranch Stress Assistance Center (NC FRSAC) and the key network collaborators have provided opportunities for training and professional development to target audiences including agricultural producers and stakeholders. Funding from the regional effort enabled over 40 North Central Extension professionals enroll in facilitator training for Michigan State University's farm stress programs. Of those,most have completed training to offer the programs to agricultural communities in their own states either in-person or online. MSU Extension maintains the MSU Farm Stress Program Train-the-Trainer online course. The National AgrAbility Program (NAP) webinars are attended by representatives from the 15 partnering organizations to increase internal awareness of farm stress and mental health concerns among specific sub-populations as well as Extension personnel, National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health Agricultural Health Center researchers, educators, and staff, healthcare professionals, and public health representatives, among others. In Year Two, National AgrAbility webinars were attended by 532 and archived webinars received 563 views. In Year Two, CS-CASH hosted a Bienvenido instructor training in Ohama, Nebraska. Dr. Athena Ramos and her team trained 17 instructors from four states. University of Wisconsin Extension has built a coalition of organizations who have been working or have started working in this area of farmer mental health and wellbeing. They hosted a virtual Summit at the end of November 2021 with 50 participants. University of Minnesota Extension hosted meetings with local and state organizations who are supporting rural mental health including MN Department of Agriculture, MN Department of Health, county State Health Improvement Partnerships (SHIP), and local Community Health Boards. In addition, University of Missouri Extension provided 21 mental/behavioral awareness training and professional development opportunities to connect individuals who are engaged in farming, ranching, and other agricultural-related occupations to stress assistance programs. Similarly, University of Wisconsin Extension trained 15 professions to teach Changing Our Mental and Emotional Trajectory. They also hosted two Summit meetings, one virtual and one in-person also provided professional development presentations on farm stress, resources, and strategies. Conference abstracts were submitted and accepted at various health and agriculture conferences including the Ohio Small Farms Conference, National Latino Behavioral Health Conference, the University of Minnesota Extension Program Conference, and the Midwest Regional Agricultural Safety and Health Conference. In addition, project directors and co-project directors have been invited to present at relevant state and national meetings. How have the results been disseminated to communities of interest? NC FRSAC results, resources, and services are disseminated to communities through many different channels, including webinars, YouTube, social media, podcasts, agricultural media interviews, sharing with advisory boards, the regional clearinghouse website at farmstress.org, regional monthly newsletter, and presentations at professional and industry-oriented conferences and shows. National AgrAbility promotes NC FRSAC efforts and resources during their quarterly webinars (described above) which are attended by Extension personnel, National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health Agricultural Health Center researchers, educators, and staff, healthcare professionals, and public health representatives, among others. Key network collaborators have delivered information to agricultural producers and stakeholders both online and in-person. Online delivery methods include webinars (South Dakota State University), YouTube (University of Illinois), social media outlets including Facebook and Twitter (University of Wisconsin Extension, University of Missouri Extension, Purdue University Extension, University of Illinois Extension, Kansas State University Extension), via podcasts (Purdue University Extension, North Dakota State University Extension, Michigan State University Extension), and interviews with agricultural media (University of Illinois Extension, North Dakota State University Extension). Central States Center for Agricultural Safety and Health participated in an in-person outreach event targeted to the Spanish-speaking population. University of Wisconsin Extension started a coalition of organizations who are working in farmer mental health and wellbeing and hosted an in-person Summit meeting. Missouri University Extension disseminated information through in-person programmatic meetings. Key network collaborators have also partnered with existing and new partners to extend farm stress resources and programming and reach additional audiences (North Dakota State University, Kansas State University). In some states, advisory board of task forces of agricultural leaders provide opportunity to disseminate information about farm stress and mental health (University of Illinois Extension, North Dakota State University Extension, University of Wisconsin Extension, South Dakota State University and Purdue University Extension). Project directors are participating in the Agriculture Mental Health Work Group, organized by the Health Resources and Services Administration. Finally, to disseminate results, recommendations, and lessons learned to Extension colleagues and researchers, abstracts were submitted and accepted to multiple conferences: Ohio Rural Health Conference, National Health Outreach Conference, North Central Cooperative Extension Association (NCCEA) Mini Land-Grant Conference for Extension Administrators, Midwest Regional Agricultural Safety and Health Conference University of Minnesota Extension Program Conference, 2021 National Extension Association for Family and Consumer Sciences, 2022 Practical Farmers of Iowa, and Nebraska Women in Agriculture Conference What do you plan to do during the next reporting period to accomplish the goals? Key network collaborators will continue to provide cornerstone training programs such as Mental Health First Aid, Youth Mental Health First Aid, QPR, and Communicating with Farmers under Stress to agricultural producers and agricultural supports. CS-CASH will expand the Bienvenido support group to additional farmworker communities in Nebraska. National AgrAbility will continue to provide quarterly webinars. Additionally, University of Wisconsin Extension will continue to train leaders in the farming community in Changing Our Mental and Emotional Trajectory. University of Minnesota Extension will be doing a series of SafeTalk (suicide prevention education) workshops for community partners and community members and will be hosting a series of mental wellness community events in rural communities. They will also explore the intersection of opioid and substance use disorders on rural stress with the goal of increasing awareness and reducing stigma. This may include activities like specific "take back" days within rural communities. This effort will include working with the MN Farm Bureau, MN Department of Ag and our local educators. Ohio State University Extension will target Ohio Producers Growers and Marketers Association (OPGMA) and Ohio Agritourism Operation to raise awareness about farm and rural stress, the impact it has on themselves, their business, their employees, and those that they encounter. They will also work more intently with the Ohio Master Gardeners Volunteers. Ohio State University Extension would like to partner with the Ohio Forestry Association in order promote better messaging on mental that relates better to their field and expertise. Ohio State University Extension will host in-person and virtual Mental Health First Aid and QPR trainings. Their team will coordinate in-person dinner theaters in various parts of the state. Lastly, Ohio State University Extension will purchase more marketing materials such as Farm Stress Relief Kits and information about 988 to put into them. Iowa State University Extension plans to pilot the Relationships Can Heal: Knowing Your Farmer Client program to mental health and health care professional in Fall or Spring of 2022/2023. University of Wisconsin Extension will be offering scholarships to health care and mental health care professionals for University of Wisconsin - Green Bay training and FarmResponse by Agri-Safe. University of Michigan Extension begin recruitment of mental health care providers to understand their perception and barriers regarding treating members of the farming community. Missouri University Psychological Services Clinic (PSC) and Missouri University Extension will hire a designated NC FRSAC licensed counseling professional to provide teletherapy to assist our farmers and ranchers and their dependents.
Impacts
What was accomplished under these goals?
Expand farm telephone hotlines and websites: NC FRSAC supports various telephone helplines and websites that provide valuable resources and services to agricultural producers, workers, and stakeholders in the region. The Center supports the Iowa Concern Hotline which received 4,531 calls from September 1, 2021 to July 25, 2022. Of these calls, 4,459 were from North Central states, including 4,310 from Iowa, 67 from Wisconsin, 31 from Minnesota, 13 from Nebraska, 13 from Illinois, 11 from Kansas, 7 from Missouri, 5 from Ohio, 1 from Indiana, and 1 from Michigan. In addition, Nebraska's Rural Response Hotline provided approximately 466 hours of service to 543 participants. The Rural Response Hotline assisted multiple farm families in distress transactions, through analysis of financial and legal issues, and consultations on options. NC FRSAC published a regional clearinghouse website in Year One. The website (www.farmstress.org) includes over 110 local and regional resources, information about the small grant program, and state specific sites. Additional KNC efforts include the development of a mental health promotion google site and various state farm stress and resiliency websites and social media groups. Expand programs that provide professional agricultural behavioral health intervention: In Year Two, three KNCs offered 119 hours of professional behavioral health services, such as therapy or counseling, to 42 new and returning clients. University of Missouri Extension has provided up to five free teletherapy sessions to help farmers, ranchers, and their families cope with anxiety and stress related to the challenges of farm/ranch and agricultural livelihood and lifestyle. University of Wisconsin and North Dakota State University are partnering with state or non-profit organizations to offer free professional behavioral health services to farmers and their families. Provide needed training and resources for producers, agriculture-related occupations, and individuals who support producers: The North Central Farm and Ranch Stress Assistance Center (NC FRSAC) key network collaborators (KNCs) have provided training and resources to producers and those in agricultural-adjacent occupations that support agricultural producers and stakeholders. Outreach and training for agricultural supporters include Mental Health First Aid (MHFA), Youth Mental Health First Aid (YMHFA), Communicating with Farmers under Stress, and QPR. In Year Two, 37 MHFA courses trained 568 individuals. Similarly, YMHFA, 493 courses trained 30 individuals. The region hosted 5 Communicating with Farmers Under Stress programs, training 183 individuals and 4 QPR classes that trained 989 individuals. Finally, 29 general presentations about state or regional resources were given to 1456 participants.
Publications
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Progress 09/01/20 to 08/31/21
Outputs
Target Audience:Target audiences for this project include: Farmers: Men, women, veterans, socially disadvantaged, disabled, and beginning Farm and producer families including spouses and youth Agricultural: Producers, leaders, service providers, workers, government based agencies, membership entities Professionals: Agribusiness, Extension, federal and state government, state vocational rehabilitation, physical health, mental health, agricultural lending, community banking and clergy State: Commodity groups, departments of agriculture, farm bureaus, AgrAbility, 4-H, FFA, departments of labor, crop advisors, agriculture associations Federal: USDA, US Department of Veterans Affairs, FSA, NRCS Programs and Committees: Lincoln University Cooperative Extension Innovative Small Farmers' Outreach Program, Missouri AgrAbility Program, Missouri Beginning Farmers and Ranchers Program, Heroes to Hives Program, Nebraska Migrant Education Program, Show-Me Farm Safety Committee, Brain Injury Association of Missouri, agriculture and tourism committees, Farm Family Resource Initiative Changes/Problems:NC FRSAC key network collaborators (KNCs), the fifteenpartnering organizations that are developing, delivering, and expanding farm stress and mental health resources and services in the twelve-state North Central region, experienced several challenges that caused impacted the rate of expenditure or modified the schedule for Year One. Most of the challenges experienced in Year Onewere related to the COVID-19 pandemic, which caused serious disruption in program delivery, program modality, personnel availability, and organizational priorities. All challenges, including those resulting from COVID-19, and resulting changes are categorized below. Project Support: COVID-19 created challenges related to recruiting and hiring project support. Some partner organizations restricted hiring during 2020 through spring of 2021. As a result, some programs were not able to be delivered, or delivery had to be modified due to staff shortages. Affected programs include Nebraska Strong Financial Services (University of Nebraska Extension), Compassion Fatigue, Burnout and Vicarious Trauma (University of Nebraska Extension), and Bienvenido (Central States Center for Agricultural Safety and Health). In addition, some partners have lost program trainers through retirement, layoffs, and leaving the organization for other employment opportunities. This has resulted in changes in expenditures, specifically, unspent funds in Year One. Programming: NC FRSAC partners have experienced a number of challenges related to programming. The COVID-19 pandemic required most, if not all, programming to move to online formats, resulting in disparate access to programs based on limited broadband and internet access. Some programs pivoted to online delivery more quickly than others, and some online delivery systems were both not ideal and outside the control of any NC FRSAC KNCs. For example, Mental Health First Aid (MHFA) created a new online platform that did not integrate well with existing systems many staff were using. Although KNCs and their partners requested assistance from the National Council for Mental Wellbeing, requests for assistance in setting up online courses, in problem-solving emerging issues with their online platforms, and in receiving evaluation data were delayed by weeks and months, if responses were received at all. MHFA and YMHA evaluation information was only available by request when it had been available instantaneously through the automated instructor portal previously, and often data received were incomplete or inconsistent. Dissemination: COVID-19 resulted in canceled and reduced opportunities for conferences and public engagement events that typically enable dissemination of resources. Project directors and Co-PIs attended many fewer professional development events, conferences, or trainings than a typical, non-pandemic year, which limited the reach to target audiences of the NC FRSAC grant activities and hindered recruitment into training programs. Farm stress programs, to be well attended, require significant buy-in and support from local agricultural businesses. Programs must be promoted by someone local in a business that caters to farmers and ranchers.Without the opportunity to buildthese relationships, the support for the programs is incredibly low. In addition, many organizations and agencies have funds and/or grants to provide MHFA and QPR at no charge so there is more competition and recruiting participants into courses has been a challenge. Services: Some NC FRSAC partners have encountered barriers to offering professional behavioral health services to agricultural producers, workers, and family members. In North Dakota, one of the project sub-award partners (Lutheran Social Services of ND) unexpectedly closed all operations in early 2021, leaving North Dakota State University (NDSU) without a partner for delivery of counseling supports and services. It took six months to get a new partner identified with relevant experience, process the paperwork, receive approval, and begin delivery of counseling services under the grant project. Operations were further delayed because budget approval by University of Illinois and USDA took longer than expected. This has resulted in reduced rate of expenditure and impacted the timeline/schedule for offering professional behavioral health services through NC FRSAC. Evaluation: Several training and service programs have standardized evaluations to measure impact and outcomes. However, there have been challenges in obtaining some evaluation information for some programs, such as MHFA and YMFA from the National Council for Mental Wellbeing. This will not change outcomes, but it will delay the reporting of program outcomes and impact. Limitations to professional behavioral health services evaluation in Year Oneinclude not enough participants to be able to aggregate data and protect confidentiality. More robust analysis of evaluation data will be possible with increased numbers of participants expected in Year Two. Clearinghouse: NC FRSAC and various partners have experienced challenges developing comprehensive clearinghouses of farm stress/farm mental health resources. One challenge is lack of website design and development expertise in-house, which requires partners work with website developers within their institutions, which are often already overwhelmed with requests or seek assistance from an outside vendor which may be cost prohibitive. The national pivot to providing more resources online due to COVID-19 has led to increased demand for web developers and services, thus lengthening wait times for services. In addition, available stress management and mental health resources are constantly changing, and substantial time must be committed to consistently updating websites. What opportunities for training and professional development has the project provided?The North Central Farm and Ranch Stress Assistance Center (NC FRSAC) and the key network collaborators have provided opportunities for training and professional development to target audiences including agricultural producers and stakeholders. Funding from the regional effort enabled 32 North Central Extension professionals enroll in facilitator training for Michigan State University's farm stress programs. Of those, 21 have completed training to offer the programs to agricultural communities in their own states either in-person or online.Funding from NC FRSAC allowed MSU to extend availability of a self-paced, online course called Rural Resilience: Farm Stress Training, in partnership with American Farm Bureau Federation, National Farmers Union, and Farm Credit Council. Rural Resilience is now available for an additional year, until July 2022, at no cost to participants. The National AgrAbility Program (NAP) webinars are attended by representatives from the fifteenpartnering organizations to increase internal awareness of farm stress and mental health concerns among specific sub-populations as well as Extension personnel, National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health Agricultural Health Center researchers, educators, and staff, healthcare professionals, and public health representatives, among others. In addition, South Dakota State University Extension is routinely hosting webinars, offering professional development on farm stress and mental health to organization and state stakeholders and leaders. Similarly, University of Missouri Extension provided 31 mental/behavioral awareness training and professional development opportunities to connect individuals who are engaged in farming, ranching, and other agricultural-related occupations to stress assistance programs. Conference abstracts were submitted and accepted at various health and agriculture conferences including the Ohio Rural Health Conference, the National Health Outreach Conference, and the Midwest Regional Agricultural Safety and Health Conference. In addition, project directors and co-project directors have been invited to present at relevant state and national meetings. How have the results been disseminated to communities of interest?NC FRSAC results, resources, and services are disseminated to communities of interest through a variety of different channels, including webinars, YouTube, social media engagement, podcasts, agricultural media interviews, sharing with advisory boards, the regional clearinghouse website at farmstress.org, regional monthly newsletter, and presentations at professional and industry-oriented conferences and shows. National AgrAbility promotes NC FRSAC efforts and resources during their quarterly webinars (described above) which are attended by Extension personnel, National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health Agricultural Health Center researchers, educators, and staff, healthcare professionals, and public health representatives, among others. In response to COVID-19, several key network collaborators have pivoted to deliver information to agricultural producers and stakeholders online via routine webinars (South Dakota State University), YouTube (University of Illinois), social media outlets including Facebook and Twitter (University of Wisconsin Extension, University of Missouri Extension, Purdue University Extension, University of Illinois Extension, Kansas State University Extension), via podcasts (Purdue University Extension, Ohio State University Extension), and interviews with agricultural media (University of Illinois Extension, North Dakota State University Extension). Key network collaborators have also partnered with existing and new partners to extend farm stress resources and programming and reach additional audiences (North Dakota State University, Kansas State University). In some states, advisory board of task forces of agricultural leaders provide opportunity to disseminate information about farm stress and mental health (University of Illinois Extension, North Dakota State University Extension, University of Wisconsin Extension, South Dakota State University and Purdue University Extension). Project directors are participating in the Agriculture Mental Health Work Group, organized by the Health Resources and Services Administration, and were asked to provide an overview of the NC FRSAC at the August meeting. The NC FRSAC published a regional clearinghouse website that features regional resources and services and includes state specific resources for each of the twelvestates in the north central region. Several KNCs have created and maintain state-specific farm stress and mental health websites with links to associated resources, educational publications, podcasts, videos and other material (North Dakota State University, Iowa State University, Purdue University). Finally, to disseminate results, recommendations, and lessons learned to Extension colleagues and researchers, abstracts were submitted and accepted to multiple conferences: Ohio Rural Health Conference, National Health Outreach Conference, North Central Cooperative Extension Association (NCCEA) Mini Land-Grant Conference for Extension Administrators and the Midwest Regional Agricultural Safety and Health Conference. In addition, NC FRSAC presented to the USDA Center for Faith-Based and Neighborhood Partnerships, Office of Partnerships and Public Engagement in an event titled "Sustainable Livelihoods and Mental Health: Strategies to Address Farm Stress". In October of 2021 a panel of five presentations by North Central region collaborators has been accepted for the American Public Health Association (APHA) conference. What do you plan to do during the next reporting period to accomplish the goals?Goal 1: Establish a diverse, regionally representative network of member organizations Project directors have successfully established this network. KNCs meet monthly to discuss progress towards grant goals, problem-solve, and share successes. Project directors have also sent invitations to and hosted two meetings for the land-grant advisory board composed of representatives from 1890 and 1994 LGUs. Established network meetings will continue. Goal 2: Develop a clearinghouse of farmer assistance programs in the region with information and resources NC FRSAC launched a regional clearinghouse website in December 2020. The site (www.farmstress.org) includes regional resources and services as well as twelve-state pages with resources and services specific to constituents in the state. The website is updated monthly to include new resources. In addition, several KNCs have launched state specific farm stress and mental health websites. Established websites will continue and be updated to reflect new opportunities and resources. Goal 3: Educate individuals/teams in the NCR about FRSAN activities and how to access/use existing resources and programs in their work with agricultural producers and communities under stress. For the next reporting period, National AgrAbility will continue to provide quarterly webinars related to farm stress issues among specific agricultural producer and worker sub-populations. Goal 4: Provide a range of services referenced in the legislative authorities: (a) needs assessments; (b) farm telephone helplines and websites; (c) training for agricultural advocates and other individuals; (d) support groups; (e) outreach services and activities directly to producers. Farm telephone helplines and websites The Iowa Concern Hotline will continue its 24/7, 365 days a year availability to the agriculture community in the North Central Region. One staff member will be maintained to support stress counseling, resource and referral calls from the entire North Central Region and potentially beyond Kansas State will develop a website with training opportunities, which will include a description of each program, a map of trainers' location and contact information across the state, and a main person of contact for each program to set up larger training opportunities Text messaging mental health promotion campaign Established websites will continue and will be updated with new opportunities and resources Training for agricultural advocates and other individuals Mental Health First Aid training (in-person and virtual) Taking Care of You Program (in-person and virtual) Question, Persuade, Refer (in-person and virtual) Communicating with Farmers Under Stress Workshop Trauma Informed Care (in-person and virtual) Changing our Mental and Emotional Trajectory (COMET) Cultivating Your Farm's Financial Future Farmer Mental Health Summit Bienvenido program Develop new training modules for mental health providers focusing on unique needs of and best practices for serving farm communities. Develop and distribute surveys to health professionals serving farming communities. Support groups Farmworker Interest Group NCFRSAC Interest Groups Local advisory boards of community champions and stakeholders Youth and Family Interest Group Statewide advisory board Outreach services and activities directly to producers Telepsychology behavioral health counseling Weathering the Storm in Agriculture Workshop Focus groups and surveys focusing on a range of producers. Goal is to understand unique stressors and challenges Attend Ohio State's Farm Science Review provide stress relief kits full of on hand resources and information for suicide prevention and promotion of the advisory community Development of multilingual stress and mental health information for farmworkers and their families Aptivate app access to farmworker community Spanish translation services Podcast sharing fist-hand stories/experiences and provide resources and behavioral approaches
Impacts
What was accomplished under these goals?
Agricultural producers in the North Central (NC) region experience anxiety, depression, substance use, and death by suicide at disproportionately higher rates than the general population. The University of Illinois mobilized partners in the NC region to form the NC Farm and Ranch Stress Assistance Center (FRSAC) to create and expand stress management and mental health resources and services to agricultural producers and advocates and stakeholders who support agricultural producers. Key target audiences include people engaged in production agriculture and allies of agricultural producers. NC FRSAC expanded programs providing professional interventions, supported farm telephone hotlines and websites, and provided training and resources for producers, agriculture-related occupations, and those who support producers. In Year One, NC FRSAC certified 61 trainers in evidence-based mental health literacy and suicide prevention programs who then provided those important training opportunities. NC FRSAC partners delivered 191 programs to nearly 6,000 people in Year One. Programs focused on increasing awareness of stress and mental health issues among agricultural producers and confidence and competence to offer support. NC FRSAC support expanded the Iowa Concern Hotline, which responded to over 4,000 calls from tenNC states. NC FRSAC published a regional clearinghouse website (www.farmstress.org) and continues to add resources and services for agricultural communities in the NC region. The project will increase community capacity and healthcare providers' readiness to respond to producers' mental health needs and potentially increase agricultural productivity by reducing presenteeism, absenteeism, and work-related injuries. Objective 1: Establish a diverse, regionally representative network of member organizations. 1A: Convene key network collaborators (KNCs);1B: Convene KNCs by interest group areas for active participation in development or delivery of activities associated with Objectives 2-4; 1C: Convene key stakeholders within select states.? 1) Monthly meetings with KNCs, invitations sent to land-grant institutions to participate in the Land-Grant Advisory Board, and sixinterest groups met quarterly. Four states convened state advisory boards. 2) Meeting minutes, attendance logs. 3) Twelvemonthly meetings hosted by PDs, attended by at least one representative from the fifteenKNCs. Two meetings of the Land-grant Advisory Board were held with participation from eightinstitutions. 4) Monthly meetings are effective to communicate administrative details, share evaluation metrics, offer KNCs an opportunity to discuss emerging issues, share updates, and solicit input. Objective 2: Develop a clearinghouse of farmer assistance programs in the region. 2A: Collect information about existing farmer assistance programs in the region; 2B: Host collected information on a centralized clearinghouse website. 1) PDs requested information about farmer assistance programs from all KNCs and compiled this information to populate the farmstress.org website which went live in March 2021. 2) 103 resources were added. 3) 103 resources listed; each has description, contact information, and is tagged with relevant interest groups or states. 4) Launching the website was a major goal.We have maintained flexibility to be able to update the clearinghouse website as new resources emerge. Objective 3: Educate individuals/teams in NCR about FRSAN activities, how to access/use existing resources and programs. 3A: Publish monthly NCR newsletter. 1) Since November of 2020,NC FRSAC published a monthly e-newsletter to educate people NCFRSAC activities and resources. 2) Number of newsletters published, number of subscribers. 3) There are 121 subscribers to the newsletter.Ten newsletters were sent in Year One; all are archived online. 4) Subscribers increased every month and include people from non-profit organizations, public health organizations, state departments of agriculture, Extension, and USDA. Two KNCs (MN, WI) have initiated state-specific newsletters as a result of the NC FRSAC newsletter. Objective 4: Provide a range of services referenced in the legislative authorities. 4A: Needs assessments;4B: Farm telephone helplines and websites;4C: Training (programs and workshops) for (1) advocates for individuals engaged in agriculture related occupations; (2) other individuals/entities that may assist individuals who are in agriculture-related occupations or are in crisis;4D: Support groups; 4E: Outreach services and activities, including dissemination of information and materials. 1) NC FRSAC is conducting a regional needs assessment. Some KNCs (IL, SD) are or have conducted state or population specific needs assessments. NC FRSAC published a regional clearinghouse website to disseminate regional and state-specific farm stress and mental health resources/services. The region supports the Iowa Concern Hotline to field crisis calls from agricultural producers in the region. NC FRSAC KNCs offered training programs and workshops to advocates for individuals engaged in agriculture related occupations and other individuals that may assist individuals who are in agricultural-related occupations or in crisis (advocates). These include Extension personnel, agribusiness, and agricultural organizations. Programs delivered in Year Oneincluded Communicating with Farmers under Stress (CFS), Mental Health First Aid (MHFA), Youth Mental Health First Aid (YMHFA), Questions.Persuade.Refer (QPR), as well as custom presentations by request. CS-CASH began delivering Bienvenido, a support group program, to farmworker communities in Nebraska. NC FRSAC KNCs provided outreach services and programs to agricultural producers, including Agribusiness and Farm Financial Decision-Making, Weathering the Storm, programs for women in agriculture, agricultural youth and families, and custom programsdelivered by request. Resources were created where gapswere identified. KNCs engaged with media to disseminate information about NC FRSAC. 2) Needs assessment survey results, key informant and focus group transcripts, number of calls to the Iowa Concern hotline, number of facilitators trained for and farmworkers participants in Bienvenido, number of training events and number of participants, number of programs and participants for agricultural producers, number of resources created, number of media engagements. 3) The Iowa Concern Hotline answered 4,097 calls in Year OnefromIA (3,965), MN (31), MO (9), IL (8), NE (9), SD (3), WI (2), IN (2), KS (1), OH (1). KNCs delivered nineCFS programs to 343advocates, 35 MHFA programs to 446 advocates, 31 YMHFA programs to 398 advocates, nineQPR programs to 127advocates, oneprogram to 27 healthcare providers, and 22 custom programs to 903 advocates. Five CS-CASH team members completed facilitator training forBienvenido and implemented the program with 34farmworkers in Nebraska. NC FRSAC KNCs delivered sixAgribusiness and Farm Financial Decision-Making programs to 531 agricultural producers, twentyWeathering the Storm programs to 341 producers, fiveprograms to 305 women in agriculture, eightprograms to 1,112 agricultural youth and families, and 25 custom programs to 1,425 producers. In addition, 46 resources were created. KNCs participated in 78 unique media engagements. 4) Results from the regional needs assessment will inform programming efforts as well as identify communities or demographics of producers who need specific resources or services to address specific risk factors for adverse mental health conditions. KNCs are interested in aggregated, state data to guide resources and services. In Year One, the NC FRSAC exceeded the anticipated number of training (4C), outreach activities (4D), and number of agricultural supports and producers trained. Evaluation is underway to determine changes in knowledge, intentions, and behaviors.
Publications
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