Due to unforeseen circumstances this event has been postponed but we will be offering it again in the future. Those who have already registered will be contacted and we invite everyone to monitor our events page for updated information on this event and others as they become available.
How do therapists and social service providers successfully deliver mental health support to people living in rural areas? This interactive webinar describes the findings from one of our recent studies that explored this question.
In this webinar learn:
what types of mental health support resources currently exist across the province,
what barriers farmers face in accessing support, and
what strategies providers find helpful to encourage farmers to seek support,
There may be time for a Q+A at the end of the webinar.
about presenter
U of A Researcher
Dr. Rebecca Purc-Stephenson is an Applied Social Psychologist and Professor in the Department of Social Sciences at the University of Alberta’s Augustana Campus, located in Camrose, Alberta. She is also a research associate of the Alberta Centre for Sustainable Rural Communities.
Broadly, her research focuses on health, resilience, and employment issues, and she uses a qualitative and quantitative methodology to achieve her research objectives. Over the past 20 years, she has conducted studies that examine how individuals with chronic physical and mental health conditions adapt at work, strategies to help them build and sustain resilience to ongoing work stressors, and ways to improve access to timely and reliable healthcare for those living in rural and remote areas.
More recently, she has narrowed her research to one industry: agriculture. Working with community partners across the province and collaborating with other researchers across Canada, she is examining the experience of mental health among agricultural producers, veterinarians, and farm families and identifying ways to build their resilience to ongoing stressors. This line of research is a natural fit for Dr. Purc-Stephenson as she has lived on a farm, worked as a farm labourer on large livestock operations and smaller family-run farms, and is a survivor of a childhood farming accident.