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Cultivating Awareness and Connections - What Mental Health Professionals Need to Know about the Culture, Resilience and Stressors of the Farms and Farm Families

Maria Pippidis, Laurie Wolinski, Alex Chan, and Bonnie Braun

Summary

Most mental health professionals are unfamiliar with the unique cultural aspects of farms as well as the unique stressors faced by farm families. Yet, farm workers appear to be at an elevated risk for anxiety symptoms compared to non-farm rural adults (American Farm Bureau Federation, 2020).

To increase the competence of mental health professionals in serving the farm population, a series of three workshops were delivered via distance technologies. Topics for the workshops were identified based on a review of the literature as well as on the Extension educators’ direct experiences with members of the agricultural community. The topics included cumulative stress, grief and loss, and intergenerational farm families. The educators created a fictional case study to facilitate hypothetical application of program content.
Post-program evaluation surveys were collected online via Qualtrics at the conclusion of the third and final workshop. Results were promising, with 100% of respondents (N=8) reporting an increase in confidence in their skills to work with farm populations, and 100% of respondents indicating that they intended to change their practice as a result of program participation.

Details

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