n THE CARILLON STEINBACH, MAN. C6
n www.thecarillon.com THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 22, 2024
Gerry Friesen shares the story of his own battle with anxiety and depression on social media and at events like the KAP annual meeting.
Wellness program providing therapy for stress on the farm
WES KEATING THE CARILLON
would be very beneficial, Friesen says.
annual meeting in January. “First, go to the website at www.manitoba- farmerwellness.ca. Click on Book an Appoint- ment, then click on Choose a Counsellor.” Counsellors and their bios will come up, Friesen said, and can be contacted directly for an appointment. If the counsellor of choice is in another part of the province and there is no desire to travel for in-person counselling, vir- tual and telephone sessions can be arranged. Speaking from experience, Friesen says he is well aware of the struggle it is to decide to take the first step to seek help when suffering from anxiety, depression or other mental illness. The program is there to help anybody in the farm community, not only the farmer dealing
Encouraged, Friesen, Moffat, Marcel Ha- cault and Roberta Galbraith became the first board of a not-for-profit organization. Their first challenge was to determine a structure for the program. To this end, an advi- sory committee made up of people from vari- ous parts of the country, involved in this kind of work, were helpful. At a board meeting in October of 2021, Friesen suggested they set a goal of having counselling available by March 1, 2022. At the time, there was a great deal of skepticism about whether they could achieve that. The group needed to raise funding, because this was going to be a free service, Friesen said. The board went out “to beat the bushes”
by WES KEATING F armers, for the most part, are an inde- pendent lot, able to handle most of the day-to-day stresses that come with the territory. After all, the vagaries of the weather, market fluctuations, ever-increasing produc- tion costs, and a shrinking profit margin are part of daily life on the farm. But when all of these stresses come at the same time and a farmer and his family feels overwhelmed, the Manitoba Farmer Wellness Program is there to help. Chief Administrative Officer Gerry Friesen says the Manitoba Farmer Wellness program was established in 2022 in an effort to help families deal with the increasing stresses of farming. “According to the World Health Organiza- tion, farming is in the top 10 of the most stress- ful of occupations.” A lot of the stresses in farmers’ lives are completely out of their control, Friesen says. Sometimes they just have to look out the win- dow and hope for the best. This year, for exam- ple, there is little snow cover and there is a lot of talk about a possible drought. More and more decisions have to be made on a daily basis, and while it’s not one thing that pushes a farmer to the abyss, a combina- tion of many that may push one over the edge. While Manitoba has had a rural stress line for more than two decades, and Friesen had been a counsellor with that support service for two or three years, there was no in-person counselling available. “There has been talk of in-person counsel- ling for years, but there wasn’t the will or the resources to do it.” In January of 2021, Friesen says he got a call from the counsellor who trained him for the help line asking him to take the ball in setting up what was to become the Manitoba Farmer Wellness Program. “I told Kim Moffat, only if we do it together.” There has been an agriculture stress coun- selling program in Prince Edward Island for 20 years, and one that was started in a few coun- ties in Ontario more recently, had been gain- ing traction.
As is the case, with many people suffering from mental illness, Friesen said, he kept pro- crastinating, until a friend suggested he make an appointment for counselling. Friesen said even making that first appointment for coun- selling already helped to relieve his stress, even before meeting his counsellor for the first time. In 2007, Friesen became a volunteer with the Manitoba Farm and Rural Stress Line, see- ing it as an extension of the mediation work he was doing at the time and would give him an opportunity to give back to the agricultural community at large. That experience was the beginning of his own journey of discovery through the laby- rinth of anxiety and depression, he said. He now shares his own story at events like the KAP annual meeting in January. Thanks to a recent funding announcement under the Sustainable Canadian Agricultural Partnership, the Manitoba Farmer Wellness Program will be able to reach out to even more farm families in the future. The governments of Canada and Manito- ba are investing $450,000 over three years in the Manitoba Farmer Wellness Program to provide access to professional counselling services to Manitoba’s agricultural commu- nity, Friesen said. The funding will support MFWP to ensure a consistent and professional service delivery and a standardized onboarding for new coun- sellors. MFWP works with over 32 industry partners to promote mental wellness and cop- ing strategies and resilience. The funding announcement in January was a welcome surprise for MFWP, but will not re- place the continued outstanding support of industry sponsors, Friesen said. “We never want to forget how this program got going with the support of sponsors and are pleased the federal and provincial gov- ernments recognize its importance. A com- bination of continued industry sponsorship and government funding will allow MFWP to expand to better serve the agricultural com- munity.”
According to the World Health Organization, farming is in the top 10 of the most stressful of occupations.
– Gerry Friesen, CAO Manitoba Farmer Wellness
with the stresses of farming, but also others in family as well. Succession planning for exam- ple creates division in families and those suf- fering from the stresses this causes, all could benefit from the program. It also doesn’t have to be only farm creat- ing the stress and anyone in the farm family in need of counselling qualifies for Manitoba Farmer Wellness assistance. “Our criterion is to have counselling begin as quickly as possible after a request has been made. Usually, the waiting period is no longer than two weeks and depending on the sched- ule of the counsellor chosen, it could be soon- er.” In the public system, wait times are long, and a reluctance to seek help further stretches out the time people go without treatment that
for sponsorships and immediately received overwhelming support from the agricultural industry. Four counsellors, in private practice, with agricultural knowledge, were sought to assist in providing counselling for the program. To- day, these counsellors are spread out about the province with one located in Strathclair, another in Brandon, one in the Winkler/Mor- den area and one in Steinbach. With the program up and running, the MFWP needed to pivot its efforts and move its focus to building public awareness. Farmers are encouraged to contact Mani- toba Farmer Wellness directly and sign up for counselling, which is as easy as three clicks on the computer, Friesen told a packed confer- ence room at Keystone Agriculture Producers
MANITOBA FARMER WELLNESS PROGRAM “Without the farmer, there is no farm” is the message from Manitoba Farmer Wellness Program, as it stresses the importance of dealing with mental health issues.
MANITOBA FARMER WELLNESS PROGRAM A farm couple surveying a golden field of wheat is one of the images MFWP has selected for its website, saying “Mental Health Matters”.
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