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Communities need to rally around struggling farmers

The director of the Upper Midwest Agricultural Safety and Health Center (UMASH) says communities need to rally around farmers struggling with mental health issues.

Bruce Alexander tells Brownfield UMASH is trying to adjust as the farm crisis intensifies.

“There aren’t enough mental health resources clinically to respond to this, so a lot of the response has to come from the communities. And connecting communities so people know how to spot someone who’s having difficulties. Where they can go (and) what the resources are, and how to have those conversations.”

He says groups like his are looking to improve mental health resources.

“We try to be as nimble as we can. (Mental health) wasn’t one of our major focus areas, but the more we talked to farmers and were at forums, we said this is what’s on peoples’ minds.”

UMASH hosted a forum on mental health last month called Building Resilient Agricultural Communities that Alexander says identified some gaps that need to be filled.

Brownfield interviewed Alexander at Minnesota Farmfest last month.