Who and How: Exploring the Preferred Senders and Channels of Mental Health Information for Wisconsin Farmers

Abstract

Unfavorable economic and environmental conditions have fueled the development of mental health resources and services for farmers. However, it is unclear who farmers want mental health information from (senders) and how they want mental health information delivered (channels). A self-administered questionnaire was used to determine the preferred senders of mental health information and the preferred channels of mental health information. Farmers were most receptive to receiving mental health information from medical providers, spouses/family members, and friends. Among the channels of information, respondents were interested in receiving mental health information from farm newspapers/magazines and one-on-one in person. Our findings have pragmatic implications for agricultural safety and health and public health organizations working to disseminate mental health information to farmers. Receptiveness to specific senders and channels of information among farmers should inform resource dispersion and future intervention.

Demands on Health Information and Clinical Practice Guidelines for Patients from the Perspective of Adults with Mental Illness and Family Members: A Qualitative Study with In-Depth Interviews

“…Sources for accessing health information and CPGs mentioned by participants are mostly consistent with research, with health care providers, medical websites and online search being the main sources [ 47 , 48 , 49 , 50 ]. Practitioners are the most frequent source of health information and enjoy the most trust, while internet ranks second in frequency of use, but is significantly less trusted [ 50 ].…”

Farmer Mental Health Interventions: A Systematic Review

“…Mental health and crisis literacy, particularly stress-management workshops, were described as key components of the vast majority of multi-component interventions deployed in the United States and Canada during the Farm Crisis and other times of crisis [ 37 , 55 , 80 , 81 , 82 , 83 , 84 , 85 , 86 , 87 , 88 , 89 , 90 , 91 , 92 , 93 , 94 , 95 ]. A total of three articles focused solely on mental health, crisis literacy, or both [ 59 , 88 , 96 ].…”

“…Although not describing specific interventions, four articles provided evidence-based recommendations for future mental health interventions in farming populations; three addressed farming populations in the US [ 61 , 94 , 152 ] and one addressed farmers in Australia [ 153 ].…”

Landscapes of support for farming mental health: Adaptability in the face of crisis

“…Support can, therefore, be formal through professional or volunteering services like mental health charities and clinicians or more informal through family, auction marts, friends and professional contacts. The importance of familial support networks is noted strongly within the literature (Herron et al, 2020;Rudolphi et al, 2019;Vayro et al, 2020aVayro et al, , 2020b. Formal support often focuses more overtly on mental health and wellbeing, whereas informal social support offered by family and friends may not mention mental health by name, but nevertheless supports it.…”