'Pick-up Man': Organizations Work to Address Mental Health of Canadian Farmers
A growing peer-support network and crisis lines are helping producers seek care as recent research shows women farmers face higher mental-health risks.
- Agricultural Wellbeing and other groups are promoting the 'pick-up man' concept to improve rural mental health, with those wearing yellow feathers in their hats identified as safe people to talk to.
- The movement stems from rodeo rider Josh Lehmann's suicide in October 2023; his sister Morgan Lehmann said he was 'cautious and leery of reaching out' because he didn't want to appear less than tough.
- Cynthia Beck with the SaskAgMatters Mental Health Network said uncontrollable factors like weather and markets cause cognitive deterioration, while a University of Guelph study of 74 farmers found women face heavier mental health burdens.
- Merle Massie of the More Agriculture Foundation reports higher-than-anticipated numbers of farmers phoning for help, with attitudes shifting so it is now 'OK to seek help instead of toughing it out.'
- Friends of Josh Lehmann run an annual fundraising roping event supporting the SaskAgMatters Mental Health Network in his honour, with this year's gathering scheduled for next month.
27 Articles
27 Articles
Agriculture and livestock are considered to be two of the country's most stressful sectors.
The Toronto Star
The Record‘Pick-up man’: Organizations work to address mental health of Canadian farmers
Josh Lehmann was a cowboy from Rosthern, a tiny town near where the North and South Saskatchewan rivers meet and the open prairie rolls into the northern boreal forest.
Organizations assisting Canadian farmers with mental health reports that they have seen an increase in the number of calls received by the hotlines since the beginning of the year.
By Jeremy Simes, The Canadian Press Organizations helping Canadian farmers with mental health issues report that there has been an increase in the number of calls received by listening lines since the beginning of the year. Cynthia Beck, of the SaskAgMatters Mental Health Network, notes that the level of anxiety among producers is high, and explains that their livelihoods are largely dependent on factors that they cannot control, including weath…
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