Ontario’s minister of Agriculture was in Guelph Monday to launch a public awareness campaign to highlight the mental health challenges suffered by farmers in the province.
A discussion was held at One Stone Road on Monday afternoon between Ernie Hardeman, Ontario’s Minister of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs and various stakeholders in the province’s farming sector, including the University of Guelph and Ontario Federation of Agriculture.
After the meeting, Hardeman told GuelphToday the provincial government is in the information-gathering stages which will eventually inform a comprehensive and connected mental health and addictions strategy.
“What we are hoping to do here is to make sure as we are looking at the big picture of mental health in Ontario, that the different requirements in rural Ontario are also being addressed,” said Hardeman.
A 2015 national survey of farmer mental health and ongoing work by U of G researcher Andria Jones-Bitton is one tool the provincial government is looking at to inform the eventual strategy.
“We looked at stress, anxiety, depression, burn out and resilience. The survey results indicated that our anecdotal concerns were confirmed, that farmers are struggling in terms of their mental health,” said Jones-Bitton of the survey.
Hardeman said mental health services look very similar in urban and rural centres, what differs is the access to those services.
“In an urban centre, they can walk to the nearest mental health professional,” said Hardeman. “In rural Ontario, they are in the back 40 and they haven’t got anybody.”
The public awareness campaign also seeks to encourage people working in the farming sector to reach out and ask for help when daily struggles become too much to bear.
“How do we get them into the services? How do we get them to know there is help out there?” he said.
The ministry is using research by Jones-Bitton to design an awareness and a program in rural Ontario that will address that shortcoming in helping to access the mental health services that are available, said Hardeman.
“We want to tap into that and use it to address some of the challenges that we face in rural Ontario that are different than the ones we face in urban Ontario when it comes to the provision of mental health services,” he said.
Jones-Bitton said it was helpful that many people in the room Monday were themselves farmers, including Hardeman.
“Today was about discussing some of the ways we can best support farmer mental health, what is needed, what are the current areas that need improvement, what new ideas and strategies can we bring forth to help support our farmers,” said Jones-Bitton.
Her research at the university is now in its second phrase, which will include 75 research interviews with farmers and people working in agriculture to look at how struggles with mental health affect farmers, their families, their animals and their businesses.
If people have sought help for their mental health, how did they find that process and if they haven’t what were the barriers to seeking help?” said Jones-Bitton.
In June, Hardeman was sworn in as the minister for Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs. He also served in that role as part of the Mike Harris government in 1999 to 2001.
His nephew, John Vanthof, is the NDP critic for Agriculture and Food, Rural Development.
