N.L. farmers focus on mental health and sustainability at industry event
Chad Bouma is a psychological support manager for the Canadian Centre for Agricultural Wellbeing. He says “we can do better” in terms of mental health supports for farmers, but programs are rolling out.
Chad Bouma is a psychological support manager for the Canadian Centre for Agricultural Wellbeing. (Canadian Centre for Agricultural Wellbeing)
The Agriculture Industry Symposium heard about just how difficult it can be as a farmer in Newfoundland and Labrador, and how isolation plays heavy on the mental health of those who do the job.
The event, held at the Delta Hotel in St. John’s,
Chad Bouma is a psychological support manager for the Canadian Centre for Agricultural Wellbeing, a non-profit organization that researches mental health and provides support programming for those working in the industry.
“Farmers represent a very unique group of industry people because a lot of farmers obviously are rural,” he said in an interview on CBC Radio’s On The Go. “Even just the access to services is one of the biggest barriers that they face.”
Bouma said issues that arose during the symposium range from the fear of potential U.S. tariffs on the agricultural industry, to the sense of isolation that many feel working in rural Newfoundland and Labrador.
That isolation naturally presents barriers to mental health care, Bouma said.
The Canadian Centre for Agricultural Wellbeing has partnered with the Newfoundland and Labrador Federation of Agriculture (NLFA) to improve access to mental health resources, Bouma said.
A program called AgriCare provides 24/7 over-the-phone access to crisis support and agriculturally-informed counselling. It also provides resources for physical and financial wellbeing.
Farmers are often seen as “do-it-all people” who pick themselves up by their bootstraps, said Bouma, so many are hesitant to ask for help.
Andy Wright has run Wright’s Family Farms in Pasadena for the past six years.
Andy Wright is the vice-president of the Newfoundland and Labrador Federation of Agriculture and runs Wright’s Family Farm in Pasadena. (Lindsay Bird/CBC)
Farming is not just an industry to its workers, but a lifestyle, he said.
“They don’t know how to ask for help because they don’t even know what they’re recognizing or what they’re experiencing,” Bouma said.
NLFA vice-president Andy Wright said mental health is a “unique challenge” in agriculture. He’s said he’s proud that the tide is starting to turn for the better.
‘Cultivating tomorrow’
The theme of this year’s symposium is around “Cultivating Tomorrow: Regeneration and Resilience.”
Wright says he’s optimistic about that.
“There’s a lot of opportunity here if we learn to look after what we have,” he said.
Portugal Cove-St. Philip’s farmer Anita Walsh, who owns Windy Heights Farm, said now is a perfect time for the province to become self-sustaining in its agriculture.
“I think we need to get back on the bandwagon and do what we should be doing for us,” Walsh said.
Walsh says the province’s farmers can shift toward a more sustainable mindset, and “use the resources that we have, and then build what we don’t have in order to be able to grow [crops] hopefully year-round.”
The mandate of the NLFA is “farmers helping farmers,” said Wright.
“The people you associate with are so heartwarming and beautiful.”
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