Our White Paper is available
What You’ll Find Inside
This report presents our recommendations to the Government of Alberta for developing a made-for-Alberta approach for farm mental health and provides direction for the work The Network is committed to doing.
The recommendations derive from emerging research on Canadian farmers, as well as our collective expertise and lived experiences, our engagement with members of the steering committee, and farmers who have endured mental health struggles.
Who We Are
The Alberta Farm Mental Health Network (‘The Network’) was created in March 2021 to provide expert advice to policymakers and program developers to assist in developing a made-for-Alberta approach to farm mental health. The Network is currently affiliated with the Agricultural Research and Extension Council of Alberta (ARECA). Agricultural Research and Extension Council of Alberta (ARECA) is a not-for-profit organization working with producers to enhance and improve the sustainability of their operations through access to cutting-edge information, field research, and new technology.
Linda Hunt is the Program Coordinator of The Network. She is a rangeland and livestock agrologist with experience in Alberta and Saskatchewan. She has worked for Alberta Agriculture and Forestry as a specialist at the Ag-Info Center, and with the grant programs for the Applied Research Associations and Agriculture Service Boards.
The Alberta Centre for Sustainable Rural Communities (ACSRC) was established in 2009 and was a joint initiative of the Augustana Campus in Camrose and the Faculty of Agriculture, Life & Environmental Sciences in Edmonton, two faculties of the University of Alberta. The vision of the ACSRC is to build resilient rural communities linked closely to the discovery, dissemination, and application of new knowledge through research, teaching, community involvement, and partnerships, and its core values include transparency, collaboration, local knowledge, and evidence-informed decision making.
Dr. Rebecca Purc-Stephenson is a research affiliate of the ACSRC and a full professor of psychology at the Augustana Campus who specializes in health, well-being, and employment issues among vulnerable populations and individuals living in rural areas. Her recent research focuses on defining farm culture and identifying the resiliency tools and coping strategies farmers use to navigate their work.
Dr. Clark Banack is the Director of the ACSRC and adjunct professor of political science at the Augustana Campus. He specializes in the areas of western Canadian politics, religion and politics, provincial education policy, right-wing populism, and rural-urban issues. Some of his recent research examines mental health interventions for men in rural Alberta.
Acknowledgments
We would like to thank Dr. Briana Hagen from the University of Guelph and Michelle Pavloff from Saskatchewan Polytechnic for sharing information about farm mental health initiatives and research. We would also like to extend our gratitude to Deborah Vanberkel for her advice on farmer access to mental health supports, as well as Kieran Brett from Bootprint Marketing for conducting the interviews of our case studies and outlining the preliminary versions of this report. We would also like to thank Giri Puligandia, Executive Director - Edmonton Region of CMHA for connecting us to mental healthcare providers working in CMHA offices that serve rural communities across the province.
