Progress 09/01/21 to 02/28/24
Outputs
Target Audience:Wisconsin farmers and farm families. Changes/Problems:
Nothing Reported
What opportunities for training and professional development has the project provided? 500 train the trainer fact sheets have been distributed at conferences, outreach events and programs. The new, adapted version of WeCOPE for farm audiences was used in professional development for approximately 22 existing WeCOPE instructors who are trained in the base program. Anational group of 50 Extension educators and state agency regulatory staff took part in a training about WeCOPE. WeCOPEcomponents are being adapted into training for FSA staff on mental health and supporting farmersandcoverscommunication, suicide prevention, and physiologically based interventions in stress management.Additional staff development efforts are planned for this group, expanding to other organizational staff/professionals, includinga targeted, one-day retreat at Upham Woods in September 2024. The program is two-fold; 1) conduct intensive training with a small team of county educators to support integrating this adapted version in their local programming, and 2) build participant interest within their local rural communities by inviting agriculture partners to attend that will promote to their audiences afterwards. We will be collecting evaluation data for both the educators and the participants 10/26/23 California Dairy Wellness Webinar professional development presentation to 25 attendees on the Wisconsin Farm Center Wellness Program. California is seeing an increase in need for farmer mental health services and had reached out to gain an understanding of what we are doing in Wisconsin. Recording available. Nou Thao and Katie Bishop (both trained Mental Health First Aid instructors) hosted a train the trainer events for ag professionals, farm service providers, and other farmer support specialists. 9 attendees became certified in mental health first aid. How have the results been disseminated to communities of interest? Through conferences, farm events, other community-based gatherings (examples include Hmong farmer gatherings, Hmong festivals) and via partner organizations (ex. Urban Triage supports Wisconsin Black Farmers)materials, resources and information about programs have been shared with a wide variety of farmers, farm workers and farm families across Wisconsin. We have also utilized, local TV, radio, newspaper, e-newsletters, social media outlets to disseminate resources, program information and successes. See above more details about these efforts. What do you plan to do during the next reporting period to accomplish the goals?
Nothing Reported
Impacts
What was accomplished under these goals?
Subproject 1 & 2: Outreach and promotion efforts including videos Promotion of the DATCP Farmer Wellness Program 24/7 Farmer Wellness Helpline Tele-Counseling Counseling Vouchers Online farmer and Farm Couple Support Groups Online Farm Culture Training for Agricultural Service Providers Wisconsin Farm Center: Healthy Farm, Healthy You Meet Jessica Beauchamp, Farmer Wellness Program Tele-Counselor Meet Ashley Clemens, Farmer Wellness Program Therapist 10/17/23 Rural Wisconsin Health Cooperative Care Coordination Roundtable presentation to 20 care coordinators about farm stress and resources available for farmers and their family. 10/18/23 Edgewood College Marriage & Family Therapist Program. Trained 10 therapy master's students about farm culture and working with farmers and their families. 10/19/23 DHS Mental Health & Substance Use Recovery Conference presentation on farm culture, farm stress and counseling farmers and their families to 30 social workers. Sponsored a licensed clinical social worker and partnered with a local grassroots farmer wellness organization, the Farmer Angel Network. 12/6/23 FYRE-UP training to approximately 20 New Fields Ag Sales staff on farm stress. Attendees were from various states. The presentation focused on educating about farm stress, barriers to farmers accessing mental health resources, training resources for ag service providers and Wisconsin Farm Center Farmer Wellness Program. 12/8/24 Rural Wisconsin Healthcare Cooperative Behavioral Health Roundtable presentation on farm culture, farm stress and the Farmer Wellness Program to people involved in rural healthcare. It included behavioral health therapists, psychiatrists, social workers, nurses, managers, directors, and a representative from the Wisconsin Hospital Association. This is a group not reached through traditional channels. Short videos developed with this grant and Rural Realities podcast were important follow-up tools to educate this audience. 1/13/24 Wisconsin Women in Ag Conference virtual presentation to 40 people about the Wisconsin Farm Center and the Farmer Wellness Program. Educating participants about farm stress and resources available. 1/18/24 WRJC Radio Farmer Appreciation in-person gathering with farmers and families in Central Wisconsin. Connected individually with many farm families and presented on farm stress and the Wisconsin Farm Center Farmer Wellness Program. 1/26/24 Central Wisconsin Farm Stress Summit. UW Extension, National Farm Medicine Center, Wisconsin Farmers Union, Dairy Girl Network, and Wisconsin Farm Bureau exhibited and spoke to healthcare providers and farmers about farm stress and resources available. 2/2/24 Grassworks Grazing Conference. Karen Endres presented on farm stress, barriers to accessing help and resources available to Wisconsin farmers and their families. Started off with a panel of some volunteers keeping balloons (stressors) in the air, demonstrating that it doesn't take too many stressors before stress starts impacting us and preventing us from keep everything going. Served on a panel with a representative from Farm Bureau and UW Extension to answer questions. Andrew Bernhardt tabled at the event and engaged attendees about farmer mental health programs and resources. WRDN - Eau Claire area. After the success of airing commercials at WRDN in Northwest Wisconsin, we aired an additional 87 commercials on WRDN about farmer mental health resources and programs. WRDN averages 800 farmer listeners per hour from 5am-5pm. Wisconsin Public Radio (WPR) support of the Wisconsin Farmer Wellness Program and promotion via an ad for the program and how farmers can access the program. Promotional materials: ordered new tabletop displays to communicate about farm stress and DATCP farm stress programs. These are a great new tool and very effective conversation starters at farm events. 60 second Mental Health Stigma - Facts & Myths video: a short, animated video to educate farmers and their families about the facts and myths around mental health. We are using this in presentations and on social media. Created two short, animated videos on breaking down the stigma of mental health. These are important for educating on farm stress and resources for farmers and their families. We are using these in presentations and on social media. Guide to Wisconsin Farm Center's Counseling Voucher Program a guide to share with other states on how our counseling voucher program works. It gives the history of the program and how we operate it including all our forms and processes. One of the successes in our program is identifying mental health service providers across our state that want to work with farmers and their families and have available appointments. This will be a tool for other states interested in created a voucher program for farmers. This grant paid for the design and some printing. Other FRSAN efforts we have with University of Wisconsin - Extension supported our staff time on this effort. Subproject 3: Underserved Farmer Outreach and adaptation of resources 13 videos in English, Hmong and Spanish: DATCP Hmong & Spanish VIDEOS and U of WI Hmong Growers/Farmers - YouTube Also promoting Minnesota Extension videos U of MN Hmong/Hmoob - YouTube On-Farm Spring Workshop: Ergonomics, Safety, & Wellbeing in partnership with Farm Labor Dashboard and UW- Madison Extension. FairShare CSA Coalition's Peer-to-Peer Farm Coaching Program for Midwest farmers. This program supports farmers in achieving tools, resources, and opportunities to achieve and maintain farm/life balance. It trains farmers to serve as coaches and brings these peer coach farmers together to partner, learn, and gain insights from each other. Interpreters at the Marbleseed Organic Conference. This year there were multiple breakout sessions that focused on wellbeing and mental health, a half-day program called "How to Go from Surviving to Thriving," which focused on neuroscience behind well-being and offered techniques to manage stress, and pain, and another half-day farmer-led discussion on wellness; topics included loneliness and isolation, burnout, time management, extreme heat and sun exposure, etc. 322 attendees identified as either beginning, BIPOC, veteran, with 109 BIPOC, 206 beginning, and 23 veteran. 10 interpreters (4 Spanish, 4 HMoob, 2 Mandarin) with ~30 hours of content interpreted for 20 Hmong, 16 Spanish and 2 Mandarin. Subproject 4: WeCOPE The original WeCOPE curricula, a comprehensive 7-week program aimed at increasing positive emotions as a way to manage and cope with farm stress from a cognitive and emotional perspective, was fully adapted and re-developed to include a range of exercises, activities, visuals, and other components that are more resonant with and for the farming community. Development of a photo library with a wider range of producers based on gender, ethnicity, and production "scale". Alternative language formats of the "base" WeCOPE (not specifically the farm version) have been created and are available to community members through Extension's Behavioral Health program. WeCOPE program has been delivered to 125 farmers from U.S. Custom Harvesters, 7 veteran farmers with Rural Opioid Technical Assistance Regional Center (ROTA-R), 1,000 individuals from a national farm equipment manufacturer's staff and support professionals, 80 agricultural cooperative members, and approximately 200 at multiple farm groups. Dairy Signal radio podcast presentation on WeCOPE was delivered in December with the Professional Dairy Producers group. 1,200 total "listens" to the seven-part podcast: "Connecting with Our Positive Emotions" that focuses on building positive emotions for farmers, farm families and agricultural professionals highlighted through the voices of those working, living and experiencing the joys and challenges of agriculture.
Publications
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Progress 09/01/22 to 08/31/23
Outputs
Target Audience:Wisconsin farmers and farm families. Changes/Problems:
Nothing Reported
What opportunities for training and professional development has the project provided?DATCP Karen Endresattended the USDA Prosperity & Sustainable Livelihoods: Partnerships to Address Suicide in Farming Communities. She received training and information on the USDA programs working on this topic as well as others across the country. She was able to network and connect with others working on farmer mental health. 11 farmers and TA providers Mental Health First Aid Training held on 5/19/23: 16 attendees Virtual Mental Health Grower Gathering on 8/3/23: 16 attendees Mental Health First Aid Training held on 8/25/23: 11 attendees including 3 farmers to become peer coaches Virtual Mental Health Grower Gathering on 11/30/23: 15 attendees How have the results been disseminated to communities of interest?The Organic Broadcaster is a widely distributed online newsletter. The DATCP Farm Center ordered 500 magnetic clips with the Farmer resource 1-800 number on them and 500 magnetic clips with the 24/7 Farmer Wellness Helpline on it. Our 24/7 Helpline is answered by the Concern Hotline funded by USDA-NIFA.We also ordered 500 magnetic notepads with contact and program information for the WI Farm Center.We plan to hand these out directly to farmers so they have easy access to our contact information and we remain top of mind when they need resources. Conducted outreach and webinars throughout Wisconsin and the Midwest via the Midwest Vegetable Growers (MVEG) Network. We have partnered with health care professionals, farming state associations and other partner organizations to engage farmers in the topic and inform farmers about the mental health resources developed through this grant project. What do you plan to do during the next reporting period to accomplish the goals?Supproject 1&2: produce60 second Mental Health Stigma - Facts & Myths video,a short video to educate farmers and their families about the facts and myths around mental health. Develop aGuide to Counseling Vouchers including a how to become a counseling service provider in our network.We are working on a guide to share with other states on how our counseling voucher program works. It will talk about our program and share our forms and processes. This will be a tool for other states interested in replicating our program. As part of this project, we will have a separate guide on how to partner with us. One of the successes in our program is identifying mental health service providers that want to work with farmers and their families and have available appointments. Subproject 3: adapt at least 2 more videos. Convert content into a podcast in multiple languages. Subproject 4: WeCOPE plans on conducting additional train the trainer events.
Impacts
What was accomplished under these goals?
Subproject 1 & 2: Videos & Promotional efforts 2/7/23 Dairy Plant Field Representatives Association.to 120 ag service providers that work with dairy producers across the state. 4/6/23 UW Medical School - Wisconsin Academy of Rural Medicine:to 28 medical students interested in practicing in rural areas about farm stress and farmer wellness resources. 4/17/23 DeForest FFA: to 42 students and staff about farmer mental health and resources. 4/26/23 MidWest Farm Broadcasting:Sharedprograms and videos with 5 staff from MidWest Farm Broadcasting to educate and collaborate how to reach farmers and their families. 5/18/23 Dairy Girl Network StrongerTogtHER Webinar:Sponsored a licensed clinical social worker to present at this webinar to 18 attendees. 5/21/23 Dodge County Farm Bureau:to 40 farmers at the Dodge County field day. 8/11/23 Wisconsin Collaborative for Healthcare Quality - Colorectal Cancer Screening Advisory Group.Presented to 12 health industry professionals on farm stress and mental health resources available to farmers and their families. 8/15/23 Vita Plus Vines & Bovines Dairy Women's Event:Sponsored a licensed clinical social worker to do a joint presentation to 70 farm women and ag service professionals on farm stress and resources available to Wisconsin farmers and their families. 10/17/23 Rural Wisconsin Health Cooperative Care Coordination Roundtable Zoom Meeting:to 20 care coordinators about farm stress and resources available for farmers and their family. 10/18/23 Edgewood College Marriage & Family Therapist Graduate Students:Provided an hour training to 10 therapy masters students about farm culture and working with farmers and their families. 10/19/23 DHS Mental Health & Substance Use Recovery Conference: Presentedon farm culture, farm stress and counseling farmers and their families.Sponsored a licensed clinical social worker and partnered with a local grassroots farmer wellness organization, the Farmer Angel Network. There were 30 social workers in attendance. Rural Realities Podcast:The podcast focuses on helping farmers tap into their resilient nature by presenting advice from experts that can help reduce stress, improve a farm's financial situation, implement good farm family communication skills, and more. 9 episodes since September2022. Topics include:suicide on the farm, depression, substance use and addiction, difficult conversations, cultivating resiliency and navigating change, tragedy on the farm, tips for stress and relationships, youth in agriculture, and tips for effective communications. 976downloads currently Midwest Broadcasting:ran 312 30-second ads on 8 stations over a 13 weeks. Total reach is estimated at 160,000.Ads were played within the ag market reports. WRDN - Eau Claire:aired 87 commercials on farmer mental health.WRDN averages 800 farmer listeners per hour from 5am-5pm. Learfield advertising:ran advertisements in November of 2022 & May 2023. Subproject 3: Underserved farmer outreach and adaptation of resources 12 video resources dubbed in English, Hmong and Spanish are currently complete or in editing. I am working on developing additional videos as time and funding allows, with the hope to produce at least 2 more videos to reach my project goal of 14 resources. Through in-person events, farm field days, collaborations with partners and new social media outlets targeted to underserved producers, I have reached over 100 underserved farmers during this reporting period, which brings my total to over 150 farmers. With the promotion of newly finalized videos, I anticipate reaching my goal of engaging 200 underserved farmers. Engagement with Hmong led organizations has continued throughout the state. Ten meetings/events have taken place throughout the state: 1 in Wausau, 1 in La Crosse, 3 in Eau Claire, 1 in Madison, 2 Mequon, 1 in Milwaukee, and 1 in Appleton that have engaged Underserved farmers. A lot of overlap and synergies have emerged thanks to this grant project. Additional resources and efforts have been combined for greater outreach, including partnering with Marbleseed who is a subawardee partner on this grant. Subproject 4: WeCOPE Adaptation of the WeCOPE program for farmers has gone amazingly well. Amanda Coorough has continued to deliver WeCOPE trainings and trainers are starting to conduct farmer WeCOPE sessions. The initial pilot of the WeCOPE curriculum went very well and informed improvements to the curriculum. Culturally relevant content and pictures were used to adapt WeCOPE farm-ified training for diverse farmer audiences. Publications, outreach materials and ongoing social media communication was used to educate and engage farmers and the farming community about WeCOPE and farmer mental health. A total of 12 publications were generated in the past reporting period. Subproject 5: Peer-Support Training Published the Organic Broadcaster Article-"Working Together to Address Farmer Well-Being and Mental Health" by UW-Extension specialist Joy Kirkpatrick in November 2022 2/25/2023 Presented at Convergence-Farmer Viability Conference Launched the Ag Solidarity Network May 8-12th to engage farmers about mental health. Created a catalog of Farmer Resiliency & Mental Health Resources: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/16CGVsiIbe5T3Co7pFeE3rrpQIEPR3_Id8lAUeVEE6ok/edit#gid=1536275840 Mental Health First Aid Training & Certification Mental Health First Aid training led byNou Thao, Marbleseed, and Katie Bishop, Marbleseed, for farmers and ag professionals in adult mental health first aid. 5/19/23 Mental Health First Aid Training 16 attendees 8/3/23 Virtual Mental Health Grower Gathering16 attendees 8/25/23 Mental Health First Aid Training 11 attendees 11/30/23Virtual Mental Health Grower Gathering 15 attendees Taught participants about the warning signs and symptoms of mental health challenges facing farmers andbuilt a coalition of farmers and farmer service providers.Attendees identified ways they could make an impact in their own communities. They shared their own struggles and made connections with other attendees. The participants took the information they gleaned to continue helping the farming community address stress and mental health challenges. Interested inquiries: We received five inquiries from farmers and non-profit organizations who were not able to attend due to distance but who wished to coordinate either a virtual training or another in-person training course closer to their location. These requests came from individuals in Missouri, Illinois, Minnesota, Wisconsin, and California. We plan on organizing virtual trainings in the future. Farmer Peer Support Coaches involved in this program were trained and certified through the program, ensuring that farmers received expert guidance and support. Additionally, every peer-to-peer coach has farming experience. We successfully served 16 vegetable, fruit and flower farmers. Our approach focused on providing peer-to-peer coaching packages, ensuring that farmers could work with coaches who could relate to their hardships and show empathy. These collaborative relationships include farmers and trained coaches working to: Identify and relieve sources of stress unique to farming; Create specific, actionable goals; Develop a roadmap to achieve those goals; and Establish effective strategies for dealing with conflicts within the agricultural context. Each farmer was offered: 1 exploratory call to understand the farmer's needs and set initial goals; 5 focused phone calls to work on specific issues, track progress, and adjust strategies as needed; and ongoing support via text, phone, or email between sessions to ensure continuous support, guidance and assistance.
Publications
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Progress 09/01/21 to 08/31/22
Outputs
Target Audience:Wisconsin farmers and farm families. Changes/Problems:Setting up contracts and subawards took longer than expected. Limits on contracts required approval and in some cases, we are still figuring out options. Travel restrictions due to COVID have prevented some outreach and meetings that has slowed down partner engagment. With a 1-year no-cost extension, we project that this will provide us with the needed time to accomplish project goals and objectives. What opportunities for training and professional development has the project provided?No DATCP staff were planned to receive any training in the original proposal. However, in the no-cost extension and the updated plan with the additional $45,300, we will have Farm Center Staff (5-7 staff in total) receive training in the WeCOPE program and peer support techniques. For the UW-Extension subaward, 15 WeCOPE facilitators have been trained. For the MOSES subaward, 15 individuals (farmers and support staff) have been trained in peer support techniques. How have the results been disseminated to communities of interest?We held a Farmer Mental Health & Wellness Summit for farmers and Mental Health Professionals. At this event, we shared results of the project to date. What do you plan to do during the next reporting period to accomplish the goals?We will continue to promote and educate farmers about available mental health resources and programming. We will finish developing outreach materials including videos in English, Spanish and Hmong. We will continue to deliver programming developed or adapted in the first year of this project. We will hold a virtual webinar with our Farmer Wellness counseling provider network (200+ providers, estimate 50 participants) using "HopIn" platform - total estimated cost includes the webinar platform and promotion. We would record the webinar for providers to view afterward. Webinar topics will be similar to what we did for NASW (unique stressors to farming, understanding farm culture, and resources available from Farm Center/FWP. Let participants know about further learning/online training available (UW-GB modules for CEU credits for example). We will continue the adaptation of WeCOPE for farmers from historically disadvantaged communities. This will require translation work and review process to ensure that culturally appropriate photos and examples are used in the curriculum. This also includes additional "train the trainer" expense to train Hmong & Spanish speaking facilitators. We will run a new round of the existing Farm Center/FWP print and/or radio ads to be run in state ag media again (utilizing what we already developed in our current subproject 1 & 2) - to be run in late 2022 and early 2023. We will have DATCP Farm Center staff get trained in facilitating the WeCOPE program (Extension) and providing peer support services (MOSES). The goal is to not have Farm Center staff become facilitators in both programs that are connected to the two subawards being led by project partners MOSES and UW-Extension, but to gain a better understanding of the different possible mental health resources and support services available to farmers. Farm Center staff connect farmers to support services through referrals. With an improved understanding of the differences between the various programs and resources, DATCP Farm Center staff can make better referrals and better support farmers that are dealing with stress. Farm Center staff will receive training from the trainers of each program (UW-Extension-led WeCOPE and MOSES-led Peer Support). Each training will consist of a single full day overview and orientation of the program and facilitator techniques associated with each program.
Impacts
What was accomplished under these goals?
Subproject 1 & 2: Videos & Promotional efforts We created print, radio, video and social media advertisements to promote and educate about the Wisconsin Farm Center and our Farmer Wellness Program.Our 30 second messages aired 4,860 times and reached 725,700 people in Wisconsin. Our partner Learfield Communications aired 1,050 free 60 second messages that reached 139,100 people. We also ran print advertisements in three agriculture newspapers. In addition, we have created a social media toolkit for use over the next 12 months. We have created two, four-minute videos on the Wisconsin Farm Center and have four more in development.These videos ran on YouTube and TikTok and have 450,246 views. Call and email volume to the Farm Center saw a25% increase in daily inquires as compared to the combined previous two quarters after these outreach efforts.This also resulted in a 94% increase in counseling vouchers issued per month compared to the previous two quarters combined. We are also seeing a higher total number of mental health counseling voucher redemptions, withan 81% increase in counseling vouchers issued per month when compared to the previous two quarters combined. Subproject 3: Underserved farmer outreach and adaptation of resources Six outreach meetings have occurred since the start of this project with historically disadvantaged farm communities, primarily with Hmong-led organizations. At each meeting, new partnerships have been developed and farmers and leaders from these farmer support organizations have shared their needs and challenges. However, this process of community engagement and needs assessment has taken longer than expected. To date, one listening session and two workshops have been conducted entirely in Hmong. The workshops focused on improving financial expertise and accessing resources. Over 50 Hmong farmers have been directly supported via these efforts to date. Through engagement with project partners, underserved farmers and community partners, content topics for videos and resources have been identified but they have not yet been translated/adapted. We learned that we cannot directly translate/dub content into Hmong or Spanish - and will require some abridging. This grant has enables us to build stronger networks with underserved farmers, but a no-cost extension would be useful in providing additional time to adapt resources that will assist with identified needs. Subproject 4: WeCOPE Adaptation of the WeCOPE program for farmers has gone amazingly well. Amanda Coorough of Sauk County University of Wisconsin-Extension started working on this project in September of 2021. The WeCope adaptation project includes the following accomplishments: • Adaptation of all seven modules, including the 11 WeCOPE skills working with review panel specializing in farm/ag, mental health, ag services were completed in the first two months of the subaward. • The curricular adaptation included full re-design of visuals and re-write of the32-page participant manual/workbook includingfarm/ag-centric examples, stories and language on issues of health, mental health, etc. • 15 facilitators were trained to delivery the new farm-ified WeCOPE curriculum. • Two independent seven-week pilot programs were conducted over two different time periods - one with ag/community leaders and educators with about 8-10 participants; one with a group of 14 women involved directly in farming. • Large array of social media assets created, paralleling the 11 WeCOPE skills with graphics and educational messages Subproject 5: Peer-Support Training Conversations between MOSES and Access to Independence staff began as soon as the grant was awarded on 9/1/21. These conversations included early planning and relationship building so that Access to Independence would understand the specific needs of the farmer community, and that MOSES would understand the requirements of the training and how to build a program after the training took place.MOSES and Access to Independence conducted outreach to Access to Independence's email list, NAMI Wisconsin, Rural Catholic Life, multiple farmer list servs, MOSES E-news, targeted emails to the MOSES database of farmers, the Wisconsin Resilient Farms & Families Advisory Board, Wisconsin Farmers Union, and personal outreach to connect with as many potential farmer peer specialists as possible.The Certified Peer Specialist training took place in February 2022 with atotal of 15 participants having completed the training.
Publications
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