CHANGING THE MENTAL HEALTH MINDSET WHAT’S INSIDE | BY MIKE WILSON IT’S HEARTWARMING to hear stories about a farmer who comes down with an illness and neighbors help nish the harvest. But what happens if a loved one or an employee develops a mental illness — and is too depressed to even get out of bed? How would neighbors respond then? is issue is dedicated to tackling a crisis few people really understand, or even want to talk about: mental health in rural America. A Farm Bureau poll found that nearly two-thirds of farmers and farmwork-ers said they experienced more stress and mental health challenges in 2021 good news? Young people today are much more transparent about their feelings; slowly but surely, the general population is more able to openly talk about these issues. “People now talk more readily about depression, but other less-known forms of mental illness, such as schizophrenia or bipolar disorder, are things that we’re just now starting to talk and learn about,” says Je Winton, an upstate New York dairy farmer, public relations executive and founder at ruralminds.org , a nonpro t dedicated to helping rural Americans living with mental illness. “It’s going to take time health awareness into everyday aspects of your business, so that we get more people taking care of themselves before they’re too far down a potentially spiraling path. We hope these stories spark a kitchen conversa-tion or two. And we hope those talks help li the stigma that still exists around mental illness in farm country. We couldn’t have brought you these stories without the generous sup-port of this issue’s spon-sor, FMC. A big thanks to these good folks who, like us, feel the urgent need to bring this important information to our read-ers. I’d also like to thank It begs the question: Why aren’t we talking about this? An August Farm Futures poll shows that a vast majority of rural Americans “tend to take a negative view of talking about or focusing on mental health and well-being” (see Page 18 for more results). at has to change, “ Unfortunately, the clock is ticking, and every day people are dying from suicide or substance use disorder.” — JEFF WINTON than they did in 2020. A 2018 report reveals that male farmers, ranchers and ag managers were nearly twice as likely to die by suicide as the gen-eral working population. ose are scary gures, but in some respects, we work in a scary pro-fession. How many other jobs depend so much on factors outside your control, like weather and markets? Add on family business tension, and it’s no wonder farmers are o en stressed out. starting now. It’s time to change our mental health mindset, one conversa-tion at a time. THE NEW ‘C’ WORD is won’t happen over-night. Remember years ago, when no one would talk about cancer? If you did, you might have called it the “C” word. No one really wants to talk about cancer, until you have to. You might say mental health, or more accurate-ly, mental illness, is this generation’s cancer. e because we’ve kept mental illness behind a curtain for so long. Unfortunately, the clock is ticking, and every day people are dying from suicide or substance use disorder.” In this issue you’ll read how real people overcame obstacles, many of them farmers just like yourself. You’ll learn where to nd help when something just doesn’t feel right, either in yourself or when you talk with others. You’ll read tips on how to incorporate mental our Farm Futures team, as well as contributors Adrienne DeSutter, Kurt Lawton and Ron Smith. We care about you and your well-being, and we know you feel the same about your family and co-workers. Let’s take care of each other. FF You can nd all the articles from this special issue in one place by scanning this QR code with your smartphone’s camera. 4 FARM FUTURES | MID-OCTOBER 2022