The Do More Agriculture Foundation is renewing AgTalk, a Canadian online peer-to-peer support group for the agricultural sector.
“AgTalk is an online space. I describe it as farmer coffee row, within the larger, powerful online space called Togetherall,” said Merle Massie, executive director of the Do More Agriculture Foundation.
AgTalk was launched in 2023 as a two-year pilot and has been renewed until 2027.
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In the past two years, there have been more than 10,000 interactions from within AgTalk.
Aside from Togetherall, AgTalk has several funding partners: RBC, BASF and the McCain Foundation.
AgTalk is completely anonymous and is accessed through an online portal.
“It’s an important space. Let’s imagine you’re at home on your farm and you’ve had a tough day and you don’t feel like you can talk about what’s going on with you, or how you’re feeling with the people around you, because you work with them all day, and maybe they’re your family members,” said Massie, who farms between Biggar and Rosetown.
“Maybe they won’t understand, or you don’t want to lay that extra burden on them, but you’d still like to let it out because you’ll feel better if you do. AgTalk becomes a space where you can do that, because it’s peer to peer,” she said.
The top issues discussed on AgTalk are stress, depression, anxiety, loneliness and relationships.
The space is populated by farmers and people who understand agriculture.
“You say what’s on your mind and share what’s been happening with you, and then other people can read and respond, and it’s just like any other kind of online social media sharing site,” she said.
“It’s a centralized space where you can share what’s happening with you and read about what’s happening to other people. Maybe you can provide some advice, maybe you can hear some advice, just like you would on coffee row,” she said.
Massie said AgTalk gives people a safe space to talk about mental health.
“We know that it’s true that there are lots of communities or farm families where a conversation about mental health is not welcome,” she said.
People can chat in AgTalk by typing, as there is no oral component.
“We call it community at your fingertips,” she said.
Massie said AgTalk offers an option to farmers who may not be in crisis but may need some peers to talk to.
“We all have regular stresses and conversations. There’s stuff that happens to all of us. We’re not all in that binary of either we’re well or we need to call a crisis line. We’re regular people with regular lives and sometimes we just want to share what’s happening. That’s where AgTalk really shines,” said Massie.
In case someone needs more help, there is 24/7 clinical backup on AgTalk. Users can reach out to the clinicians if they want.
The clinicians will not interfere unless they are needed, but they are present on the site.
They can offer a one-on-one conversation with people who need to talk things out and help them access higher levels of support.
“Maybe they just want to have a little bit more understanding of an issue. The Togetherall platform does have the ability to escalate that and connect them with a call line so they can speak to someone one-on-one or even access 9-1-1 and send someone to them,” she said.
All the partners have been promoting the site, and there has been a rise in people signing up.
“We think we’re reaching the point where it’s going to tip and become a huge gathering place,” she said.
Togetherall and AgTalk have created a super peer training.
“These are people who really enjoy the platform, and who really want to reach out to one another. Again, it’s all anonymous, so it’s very simple to do. You’re not revealing anything about yourself. But some people want to take additional training so they can feel confident in their ability to interact with one another. If that’s something that people are interested in, they can feel free to reach out to me ([email protected]) because I will be putting another cohort of super peers through their special training this fall,” she said.
The easiest way to find the AgTalk website is to go to the Do More Agriculture website and click on the AgTalk link. On the Togetherall platform, people can also join other chat groups, read articles and do some additional courses and learning.
Massie said most farms are businesses that don’t have employee assistance programs. AgTalk can help provide that support.
About 66 per cent of AgTalk users say they have no formal support outside of AgTalk.
About 33 per cent of users have no formal supports at all, which means they don’t have anybody that they feel comfortable talking about their mental health with.
Massie said the site is reaching across the generations, with users between the ages of 16 to 85 years. The site also attracts a diverse group including Indigenous people and people of colour.
“Agriculture across Canada has lots and lots of people who come from different countries and different backgrounds, and it’s a growing number,” she said.
