Farmscape for April 3, 2018

An Associate Professor with the University of Guelph says awareness of the issue of farmer mental health is higher than ever.
"The Human Side: Stress and Mental Well-Being On Farm" was among the topics discussed last week as part of the 2018 London Swine Conference.
Dr. Andria Jones-Bitton, a Veterinarian and Associate Professor of Epidemiology in the Department of Population Medicine at the University of Guelph, says she began looking at farmer mental health about three years ago and since then things have been changing a lot and for the better.

Clip-Dr. Andria Jones-Bitton-University of Guelph:
We've got a lot of interest in the work that we're doing at the University of Guelph around farmer mental health.
We're now in phase 2 of our research programs where we're developing new interventions for farmers.
There's been growing discussion about farmer mental health amongst farmers and veterinarians and the industries that serve them.
We see social media now in the ag-titter world, lots more people are talking about farmer mental health there.
There's the new group out of the west, Do More Agricultural Foundation, who's also highlighting farmer mental health and well being.
Farming is recognized worldwide as one of the most stressful occupations in the world.
The World Health Organization report indicates that.
We have had research studies out of Australia and out of the UK that have looked at farmer mental health for quite some time.
The survey that I did back in fall of 2015 was among one of the first to look at Canadian mental health and we saw higher levels of stress, higher levels of anxiety, increased levels of depression and higher levels of burnout amongst farmers than compared to other occupations and compared to the general population so it is a high risk occupation for sure.

Dr. Jones-Bitton says farmer mental health has been an issue for generations but now people are feeling more open to sharing their personal experiences and to saying what are we going to do about this?
For Farmscape.Ca, I'm Bruce Cochrane.

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