Farm Stress Management and Resources for Maryland Service Providers
Goals
Farm stress management training will equip 150 agricultural providers with skills and knowledge to support farm families in times of distress. This project will increase the provider’s ability to identify signs of distress, communicate with someone experiencing distress, and provide resources and tools to manage stress on the farm. Approximately 60% of the providers will utilize the knowledge and skills to reach an estimated 1,300 individuals resulting in increased well-being of farm families. This project is funded by Northeast SARE, Professional Development Program.
Audience
This project will directly target 150 Agricultural providers, these providers will be recruited through current partnerships and referral methods. An estimated 1,300 individuals will be reached and taught through the initial 150 trained Agricultural providers.
Timeline
July 1, 2020 - June 30, 2022
Project Team
Shannon Dill, Jesse Ketterman, Paul Goeringer, Bonnie Braun, Emily Zobel, and Alex Chan
Performance Targets
- Service providers gain knowledge and skills in the area of mental health and wellness. They will have the ability to identify signs and symptoms of stress, communicate with someone with stress and refer clients (farmers) to mental health resources. With the knowledge gained providers will communicate with farm families and educate farmers about the resources and tools in the area of mental health and wellness.
- Service providers will gain skills and knowledge in financial and regulatory resources (identified as major stressors by farmers). Providers will educate farmers in the areas of developing personal and farm finance goals, assist with the development of farm financial statements, promote legal resources for farm families, and share negotiating contracts and debt management resources.
- Service providers will receive continued training and access to resources through the newly formed network. This includes follow-up webinars, discussion groups, online materials, and a self-paced module. These additional tools will provide continuing education to providers and additional resources and skills to educate and advise farmers in the area of mental health, wellness, financial and regulatory issues.
Methods
- Creation of curriculum and web-based tools
- Statewide forum to bring together agriculture service providers and agencies to discuss rural health and farm vitality issues
- Face-to-face trainings with follow up webinars
- Creation of fact sheets, reference guides, and tool skits to be shared
- Ten one-day regional trainings for service providers
- After training support through website, email listserv, three annual follow up webinars and online discussion group of service providers
- Advertisements, tips, articles, and self-paced web-based modules created as accessible resources
Outcomes
- Gain knowledge and sharing of the current farm and rural health situation and sharing of resources and materials available within and outside the state.
- Gain the ability to identify stress, symptoms of stress, communicate with someone experiencing stress, warning signs, resources including mental health, financial goals, debt management, regulatory and contract negotiations
- Focus on ability to identify stress, symptoms of stress, communicate with someone experiencing stress, warning signs, resources including mental health, financial goals, debt management, regulatory and contract negotiations
- Reference website, find additional resources and stay connected to the discussion and issue of farm stress management. 6/30/2022 and beyond
- Share knowledge learned to other providers, farmers, and partners
- Gain the ability to identify stress, symptoms of stress, communicate with someone experiencing stress, warning signs, and resources including mental health, financial and regulatory
This material is based upon work supported by the National Institute of Food and Agriculture, U.S. Department of Agriculture, through the Northeast Sustainable Agriculture Research and Education program under sub-award number ENE20-160-34268