Farmscape for January 23, 2025

The Vice Chair of the Manitoba Farmer Wellness Program says there is a growing recognition among the provinces of the need to address anxiety and depression among farmers.
The Manitoba Farmer Wellness Program, on hand as part of Manitoba Ag Days in Brandon, is on on-line support program for farmers, their families and their employees who are dealing with anxiety or depression.
Program Vice-chair Roberta Galbraith says the program was a response to a 2016 University of Guelph study that revealed depression and anxiety levels within the agriculture sector, particularly among farmers, were substantially higher than the general population and a follow-up 2021 study that showed the needle hadn't moved.

Quote-Roberta Galbraith-Manitoba Farmer Wellness Program:
Connecting with the program is really simple.
You go on line and it's manitobafarmerwellness.ca and you can go through the pages there.
We have four councillors that work with us across the province and if you're feeling like you need to talk to somebody then you can just peruse through their profiles and book an appointment.
That's how simple it is.
If we're suffering from anxiety or depression, we don't necessarily like crowds or going to a public place.
So, you go there, you look at the councillors, you pick one that you think you might have a connection with, you book an appointment, they will phone you back and get you in the process.
If it doesn't work put you move to a different councillor.
You don't have to put your credit card in, you don't have to do any of that kind of stuff.
They will meet with you on line in person, what ever you choose and you never get a bill.
That's the beauty of the program.
You can have nine sessions in a 12-month period.
January 1'st it resets.
You get another nine.
The people that access our program are farmers or family members of farmers or farm employees.

Galbraith says members of the agriculture community tend to believe they are resilient and they are but things do tend to get bottled up and reaching out for help is something we don't necessarily do very well.
For more visit Farmscape.Ca.
Bruce Cochrane.

       *Farmscape is produced on behalf of North America’s pork producers