EMERGING ISSUES | AVIAN INFLUENZA | EVENTS | CONTACT

Understanding Farmers’ Mental Health Challenges and Seeking Solutions

Understanding Farmers’ Mental Health Challenges and Seeking Solutions

JANUARY 2025

Farming is more than just physically demanding—it can be mentally, emotionally, and financially challenging too. Farm families and rural communities navigate a complex web of financial, social, and environmental challenges, which can contribute to elevated rates of stress, anxiety, and depression.

Recognizing the growing need to address this issue and provide resources, Upper Midwest Agricultural Safety and Health Center (UMASH) research project teams are leading an innovative research project to better understand farmers’ mental health.

This first-of-its-kind study focuses on how farmers decide to seek help, their help-seeking behaviors, and the factors—both personal and external—that influence these decisions. 

Researchers are now seeking direct input from farmers. Share your insights!  

Farmers Needed for Financial and Mental Well-Being Interviews

INTERVIEW KEY DETAILS
  • Who: Farmers living in Minnesota (focus on Fillmore and Wright counties), South Dakota (focus on Brown and Minnehaha counties) or Wisconsin (focus on Clark and Dodge counties).
  • What: One-hour interviews via phone or Zoom.
  • When: Interviews will be conducted between January and April 2025.
  • Compensation: Participants will receive $50 for their time.
  • Confidentiality: All responses will be kept anonymous and summarized for sharing with policymakers, farm organizations, and service providers.
  • How to Participate: To schedule an interview or learn more, visit: https://redcap.ctsi.psu.edu/surveys/. Farmers can also request more information and a paper sign-up form by contacting the project manager, Sarah Ruszkowski (sarah.ruszkowski@psu.edu; 814-865-4982).

Digging Deeper into Farmers’ Mental Health Support Needs

Since the project began in 2022, the research team has been gathering valuable data from Minnesota, South Dakota, and Wisconsin to gain a deeper understanding of the mental health challenges farmers face. This includes creating regional case-study profiles  for Fillmore and Wright counties in Minnesota, Brown and Minnehaha counties in South Dakota, and Clark and Dodge counties in Wisconsin, which assess the impact of current mental health resources and farmers’ needs in the region. Gathering insights on available resources and programs supporting farmers’ financial and mental health, the team has interviewed key invested groups, including farm organizations, state and local agencies, university extension professionals, healthcare providers, mental health advocates, and community leaders.

Their work has contributed to national conversations about mental health in agriculture, with several presentations, publications, and media interviews. These efforts have helped raise awareness and shape future strategies for supporting farmers and their families.

What’s Next: Gathering Farmers’ Insights to Shape Future Support

As the research continues, the team is moving into the next phase: seeking direct input from farmers.

Researchers are conducting one-hour interviews with farmers in Minnesota, South Dakota, and Wisconsin to better understand how they solve challenges related to financial and mental well-being. This input will provide critical insights needed to develop more effective, targeted programs and policies that will help support farm families in navigating the unique pressures they face.

Listening to Farmers: Problem Solving for Financial and Mental Well-Being

To better understand farmers’ mental health support needs, researchers from Pennsylvania State University, University of Minnesota, and South Dakota State University are seeking farmers in Minnesota, South Dakota, and Wisconsin to share their experiences in fixing problems on and off the farm, including those connected to financial and mental well-being. Insights gathered from these one-hour phone or Zoom interviews will help shape policies and programs that better support farm families.

All responses will be kept anonymous and summarized for sharing with policymakers, farm organizations, and service providers. Farmers’ input will play a critical role in creating actionable recommendations to strengthen future programs and policies to support the health, well-being, and economic viability of farm communities.

The team will share anonymous summaries of what farmers talked about during the interviews with policymakers, farm organizations, and service providers. The team will also develop recommendations regarding future programs and policies to support the health, well-being, and economic viability of farm families.

The interviews will take place between January and April and farmers will be compensated $50 for their time.

“From bookkeeping to preparing for spring planting, we know that farmers are extremely busy, and their time is very limited,” said Becot. “Still, we encourage farmers to participate in these interviews because we also know that decisions are being made by local, state, and national policymakers without a good grounding in the realities faced by actual farmers and their families. 

Florence Becot, Ph.D., M.Sc.

How to Participate:

To schedule an interview or learn more, visit: https://redcap.ctsi.psu.edu/surveys/. Farmers can also request more information and a paper sign-up form by contacting the project manager, Sarah Ruszkowski (sarah.ruszkowski@psu.edu; 814-865-4982).

For further about the research project, contact the project lead: Florence Becot ( florence.becot@psu.edu ; 814-865-1783).