A not-for-profit foundation focused on addressing mental health challenges in Canadian agriculture will officially be launched in Edmonton next week at FarmTech. The Do More Agriculture Foundation kicked off its online and social media presence this week. The initiative is the brainchild of its four founders: Kim Keller, Lesley Rae Kelly, Himanshu Singh and Kirk… Read More
Category: Health & Wellness
I was in a conference call around access to mental health services last month, and a question came up that I’m sure a great many of us have considered: what can we do to break down stigma in our communities? Now, there are many ways we can go about breaking down stigma (worthy of a… Read More
Substance dependency is often reported as — and thought of as — an urban issue. Statistics blur the issue, showing high numbers of dependency, and, sadly, death, in areas of greater population. But addiction is not isolated to people who live in cities. From alcohol to tobacco to what we’ll focus on in this post,… Read More
Canada’s leading advocate for mental health awareness in agriculture, University of Guelph veterinary medicine professor Andria Jones-Bitton, is in high demand at farm meetings to speak about her ground-breaking research results. Through her studies over the past three years, she’s discovered an abnormally high rate of depression and other mental illnesses among farmers (and veterinarians)…. Read More
In 1992, the Canadian Psychiatric Association established Mental Illness Awareness Week (MIAW) to highlight the impact of mental illness to the Canadian public, and promote recovery. The Canadian Alliance on Mental Illness and Mental Health (CAMIMH) now coordinates the week in collaboration with its member organizations and other supporters. This year, MIAW runs from October… Read More
One of the biggest challenges in our fitness routine on the farm is strength and conditioning. Cardio is pretty simple with wide open gravel roads and fields. It’s pretty simple to throw on some running shoes or hope on a bike and ride. Strength and conditioning on the other hand, often done at a gym,… Read More
Mental health has been in the agriculture spotlight lately, with a push to break the stigma that often surrounds mental health. And the Agricultural Producers Association of Saskatchewan’s Young Agricultural Producers (or YAP) committee is hoping to keep the conversation going. Danny Ottenbreit, southeast Saskatchewan farmer and co-chair of the YAP committee, was in the… Read More
Mental health challenges on the farm are not restricted to operators, or even their spouses…they affect their kids, too. And that’s one reason the Global 4-H Network Summit has dedicated a session to mental health and awareness when leaders from 70 countries converge in Ottawa this week. On Friday, July 14, the final day of… Read More
The agriculture community is full of very strong-willed, independent people that excel at what they do. We also take pride in helping each other out. But the fact remains that farmers and ranchers fall short on identifying and discussing the need for help when it comes to mental health. One of our industry’s greatest strengths… Read More
As the weeks pass by do you keep your head down without paying much attention to the environment around you? We are all busy in our hectic lives as we try to find time for work, family, and personal time. We become so task oriented as we try to complete seeding, finish that last email,… Read More
If you’ve never heard Jolene Brown, farm family advisor and total firecracker, speak, you’re missing out. Brown spoke recently at the Advancing Women in Agriculture conference in Calgary, and then found some time to sit down with our own Shaun Haney to talk about in-laws, tough decisions, work/life/farm balance, and what family really means. Brown… Read More
“Budgets are always going to be tight, regulatory issues are always going to be confounding, but creativity is free.” Whether we’re talking about employees at Disney or on a North American farm, financial and regulatory constraints will always exist. How businesses perform within those limitations depends on creativity, stresses Doug Lipp, business consultant and author… Read More
Clara Hughes is a storied and decorated Olympian, winning a total of six medals between both summer and winter olympics. A cyclist by chance and a speed skater by choice, Hughes has been open about the significant challenges she faced as a teenager and as a young adult athlete battling a rough home life and her… Read More
Why are celebrities so influential when it comes to trends? Turns out, we may actually be programmed to follow prestige. But, as Timothy Caulfield explains, we may not always recognize this behaviour in ourselves, claiming instead that “everyone else” falls for such things, but not us. Caulfield, a professor with the University of Alberta’s law… Read More
Let’s face it — farming can be an incredibly stressful and emotional way to live life. We might pride ourselves on being tough and resilient, but we are human. We have the same vulnerabilities as everyone else. With the spotlight on mental health this week, thanks to #BellLetsTalk, we dug into the archives for a few… Read More