Sophie Kuijper Dickson, LJI Journalist
A new kind of support is now available to farmers across Canada who may be struggling with their mental health – a crisis line that can be called at any hour of the day, 365 days a year.
The free service, accessible by dialing 1-866-FARMS-01, is completely confidential and available in both English and French.
It is being run by the Canadian Centre for Agricultural wellbeing thanks to a three-year, $1.5 million investment from crown corporation Farm Credit Canada, and is for farmers, their family members, farm employees, and spouses and dependents of farm employees, 16 years or older, who are either in crisis or just need to talk to somebody about how they are doing.
The service’s website lists everything from financial stress and succession challenges to feelings of burnout and isolation as just some of the reasons calling the phone line might help.
Callers will be connected with a mental health professional who has received a special training to support members of the agricultural community. They will listen, offer coping strategies, and connect the caller with other forms of support, if needed.
While this phone line, launched earlier this month, is not yet a well-known resource in the Pontiac community, it’s being received as a welcome upgrade to the ag-specific mental health support already available to Pontiac farmers.
Audrey Arcand is a Pontiac-based farm wellness worker with Écoute Agricole, a non-profit that offers mental health services to farmers across the Laurentians and the Outaouais, including in the Pontiac.
She said while her organization offers the benefit of being able to meet with farmers in person and support them over the course of longer periods of time, the team she works with cannot be available 24 hours a day, seven days a week.
“We only work regular nine to five [hours], Monday to Friday, usually. But we are definitely not a crisis call line,” she said. “When people need to reach us outside of our hours, it’s important for them to have a place where they can call, and I think a place that is adapted to their reality, and their special needs.”
The need for a crisis line in the Outaouais is particularly heightened, according to Arcand, who explained there is no general suicide helpline in the region. She said people who call the province-wide option – 1-866-APPELLE – will be redirected to the provincial 8-1-1 health line, where they might encounter longer wait times.
“For a person in a crisis state, [that’s] not the best option,” she said.
Gema Villavicencio, owner of Pure Conscience farm in Bristol and vice-president of the Pontiac chapter of Quebec’s union of agricultural producers (UPA), said she believes there are many in the Pontiac farming community who could benefit from this kind of industry-specific mental health support.
“It’s a different reality. I think not everybody understands the reality of a farmer,” she said, noting one of the challenges to be the relatively isolated nature of the work. “We all go through the winter blues, especially around this time of the year.”
Despite what Villavicencio describes to be a fairly common experience of isolation, numbers from Écoute Agricole’s 2023-2024 annual report show not many farmers in the region are benefiting from the mental health support offered by the organization.
Of the 367 agricultural producers in MRC Pontiac, only 10 were supported by the organization in the 2023-2024 reporting year. Another 13 producers in the MRC des Collines-de-l’Outaouais also sought help from the organization.
Half of the people helped were referred by someone else, while the other half reached out themselves.
Arcand emphasized how critical it is that the support be provided by professionals who are well acquainted with the realities of being a farmer.
“In the case of a crisis, there are many aspects to take care of. It’s the farm that’s at risk sometimes,” she said.
“For someone to get help, especially in a crisis situation, the whole farm needs to be taken care of, because they’re not going to call if they’re not sure their animals will also be taken care of.”
Villavicencio said she was happy to learn of another form of support being offered to farmers.
“It’s very complementary to what Écoute Agricole is doing. We just need to make it more known.”