Do More Ag to offer mental health first aid training

Reading Time: < 1 minute A $50,000 grant will allow a new non-profit to provide mental health first aid training for producers and agriculture industry professionals in select communities across Canada. The Do More Agriculture Foundation was set up this winter to provide support and mental health resources to farmers. The grant from Farm Credit Canada will fund a pilot […] Read more

Do More Agriculture’s Lesley Kelly and husband Mathieu are sharing their mental health stories to create a stronger agriculture industry for their sons, Jennings and Copeland.

HEARTFELT: Couple opens up and sparks conversations across farm country

Reading Time: 2 minutes Lesley and Mathieu Kelly knew they were opening themselves up to a backlash when they shared a candid video about mental health problems they’ve faced as a young farm family. They spoke about the stress of farming, of Mathieu’s anxiety, of Lesley’s postpartum depression. And they were right. They were bullied. People online mocked them, […] Read more


Do More Agriculture Foundation co-founders Himanshu Singh (left), Lesley Rae Kelly (centre), and Kim Keller launched the new mental-health focused non-profit at FarmTech in January.

‘Do More Ag’ mental health initiative for farmers receives grant

Reading Time: < 1 minute A new non-profit focused on destigmatizing mental illness in the agriculture industry and offering resources designed specifically for farmers has received a $20,000 grant from Bayer Canada. The Do More Agriculture Foundation was co-founded by Saskatchewan farmers Lesley Rae Kelly and Kim Keller earlier this year. “The support from Bayer will allow The Do More […] Read more

For farmer Sean Stanford, talking about his mental health struggles has been hard — but a necessary step toward healing.

Ag industry urged to ‘do more’ about mental health issues

New organization aims to destigmatize mental illness in the agriculture industry by getting people to talk more, ask more, and listen more

Reading Time: 5 minutes Sean Stanford thought he was going to die. It happened one week last winter, and started with a pain in his chest. A heart attack, he figured. A trip to the emergency room turned up nothing. There was nothing wrong with him. And then the pain started again, worse this time. Another trip to the […] Read more


emergency for an accident

Mental health training to be part of first aid courses

Reading Time: < 1 minute St. John Ambulance is making mental health training part of its standard and emergency first aid courses. “We currently offer mental health first aid courses in several provinces,” said Philip Clarke, chancellor of the Priory Council that oversees St. John Ambulance. “Integrating a mental health module into our standard and emergency first aid courses is […] Read more

With each bank of clouds that roll by without giving up any moisture, the stress caused by drought builds up.

Stress could be taking its toll on you — know the signs

Withdrawing, not wanting to eat, and constant worry 
are all signs of stress that could lead to more serious issues


Reading Time: 3 minutes In tough times — like this year’s drought — stress can creep up on you. So take a moment to think how your friends and family are holding up. “I really encourage people to notice what other people are doing when it’s stressful like this. You may need to look after each other a bit […] Read more