Recently announced - the latest in a series of offerings to assist rural residents and communities deal with farm stress and rural mental health challenges and stigmas. Rod Bain reports.

PARTICIPANTS: Rod Bain. Terri Moore of the American Farm Bureau Federation. Rob Larew of National Farmers Union. Judy Lux of RuralMinds.org.

Transcript

Efforts continue to expand in the realm of addressing mental health issues and eliminating mental health stigmas in rural America.

Among those leading the way, a variety of agricultural and rural-oriented organizations, private businesses, and non-profit groups.

There was the recent announcement of...

Free access to counseling for farmers and ranchers and those in rural America.

Terry Moore is with the American Farm Bureau Federation, one of several partners within the Farm Family Wellness Alliance.

Their new platform, found at www.farmfoundation.org/resources, provides anonymous online mental health and well-being services.

And as important, points to local resources in rural communities.

She acknowledges...

One of the challenges in the mental health arena is that often we have national hotlines, but those counselors may not understand rural America.

Life is very different in rural America, and so the psychology of helping someone in crisis in rural America is different.

And that too is part of what we have been working to achieve.

Another partner in the Farm Family Wellness Alliance, the National Farmers Union.

Rob Leroux of NFU says in addition to resources, partnership among farm groups can also provide encouragement to those seeking rural mental health resources.

Issues like this, making sure that we're reaching out to help our neighbors, that's the rural way, that's the farmer way.

And that we're doing it around issues so important like farm stress and mental health, I think is a good sign and hopefully will continue to improve conditions out there.

The non-profit organization Rural Minds recently joined forces with the National Grange to offer the Rural Mental Health Resilience Program.

Found at www.ruralminds.org.

Judy Lux of Rural Minds says it offers several free resources.

It's everything from a friend or a family member who might be struggling, how can you have that conversation with them, not be afraid to have that conversation with them.

To ways that you can hold an event, say for example a church or an organization in a community would like to raise awareness about mental health.

There's a tool kit for how to hold an event and raise awareness within those communities, so it's very much a grassroots effort.

I'm Rod Bain reporting for the U.S. Department of Agriculture in Washington, D.C.