Given the physical demands that agriculture has with the weighty responsible of feeding the world, sometimes the mental weight of such a huge responsibility can be pushed aside.
However, help is available for farmers who need it.
“(Our) counselors have a clear understanding of the struggles that are specifically related to those who work in the agriculture industry. The stressors that impact farmers are somewhat different than the average person,” says Michael Fedunec, a counselling services supervisor/counsellor for Family and Community Support Services, located in Coaldale, Alta.
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“Most people’s identities are not attached to what they do for a living, whereas farmers, it is their whole way of life. There is the old adage, you can try and take the farm out of the farmer, but you can’t take the farmer out of the farm. You can’t just say with their stressors, ‘oh, just quit your job.’ ”
FCSS offers an array of services to 16 rural municipalities in southeastern Alberta and works collaboratively with AgKnow and its team of therapists and counsellors.
Eighty per cent of its funding comes from the provincial government and the other 20 per cent comes from participating rural municipalities.
Fedunec said many factors can affect farmers’ mental well-being, such as work/family balance, sufficient manpower, economic pricing of commodities and government regulations.
“Farming couples are trying to balance a healthy family life versus certain times of the year. Seeding time and harvest, they are working 16 to 18 hours days, and how do you maintain that family connection in the home?” he said.
Fedunec has worked with clients who have had to deal with the mental and spiritual anguish of suffering a death on their farm.
“There have been deaths on the farm as a result of farming accidents, so they are dealing with grief and loss and guilt and all those other things because they feel responsible for insuring their hired hands or whoever it may be are safe,” he said .
Farmers can often suffer in silence with the “tough guy” persona that has been been romanticized in western cinema but that at times can lead to tragic consequences.
“Most farmers have a suck it up, move on, get over it or even have difficulty acknowledging their mental or even physical health issues,” said Fedunec.
“In fact, statistically, the rate of suicide among the agricultural industry is extremely high, much higher than I think the average person would even recognize. A lot of that has to do with often that they don’t have a way out because they don’t know who to talk to. They are the ones who have the most accessibility to the means to end their lives. They have containers full of chemicals, they have guns.”
Some farms in Canada have been in the family tree for multiple generations, and there are doubts those roots will continue to grow.
“Transitions are the huge ones. There are generations that don’t want to let go and the younger generation may not want to necessarily take over. So where does that leave the generation that started the farm?” said Fedunec, who holds a master’s degree in counselling and is a certified professional counsellor, Canadian certified counsellor, certified professional counsellor supervisor, Canadian certified counsellor supervisor and a registered member of the Association of Counselling Therapy of Alberta.
With more than 30 years of counselling experience working with adult individuals, couples and families, he is familiar with the challenges and struggles that many people in the agricultural field experience.
But in the end, it will be the farmer who will know deep down inside when to take that first step to getting help with counselling services.
“The moment the advice of your friends and family is no longer working, it is now time to seek out and find an unbiased, objective opinion or listening ear because continually going to family and friends, you are going to get a subjective response and also if you find the situation you are in is impacting your day-to-day life. It’s impacting your day-to-day relationships, your productivity, then it’s time to reach out.”
For more information, visit agknow.ca.
