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In partnership with Ohio State University Extension, training will be provided to mental health and other health care professionals in Ohio on the unique stressors and factors that influence agricultural producers, other individuals working in the agricultural sector, and farm and rural households. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Entitled \u201cBridging the Gap for Agricultural and Rural Mental Health Training in Ohio,\u201d the $500,000 grant was awarded by the U.S. Department of Agriculture\u2019s National Institute of Food and Agriculture (NIFA) Farm and Ranch Stress Assistance Network.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cOur farmers and producers are facing incredible stressors,\u201d said Cathann A. Kress, vice president for agricultural administration and dean of The Ohio State University College of Food, Agricultural, and Environmental Sciences (CFAES). <\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cMany farmers are faced with unpredictable issues and concerns daily involving personal health and injuries, equipment and parts, animal health, weather, and crops.\u201d Kress said. \u201cCOVID-19 came at an already challenging time for farmers, adding uncertainties and complexities with supply chain, and additional stressors with health and family concerns. Many mental health professionals are not trained, nor do they have direct experience working with the agricultural sector and their unique challenges.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n
That is where OSU Extension, CFAES\u2019 outreach arm, will step in. \u201cMany farmers and rural households do not have access to or have not fully engaged with the resources available to help them address or cope with many of these stressors,\u201d said Jackie Kirby Wilkins, director of OSU Extension. \u201cThis grant will bring people and resources together to effectively impact farm stress and improve well-being. When our farmers are supported, we all benefit.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Under this project, OSU Extension\u2019s responsibilities will be to:<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u2022 make existing and newly developed curricula for Ohio\u2019s mental health care providers available for continuing education unit (CEU) credits related to the unique stressors existing in the farming community.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u2022 begin to build infrastructure for CEU management.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u2022 provide education and outreach of mental health programming to the agricultural community.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u2022 certify OSU Extension educators as trainers in Mental Health First Aid (MHFA); question, persuade, and refer (QPR); trauma-informed care (TIC); and Generation Rx or other relevant trainings.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u2022 provide funds for promotional materials and media. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
This project will build on OSU Extension\u2019s work on two other North Central Region USDA NIFA farm stress grants. One supported the development of a clearinghouse of state resources that are available on CFAES\u2019 Rural and Farm Stress website (u.osu.edu\/farmstress). The second grant is supporting the creation of the regional Farm and Ranch Stress Assistance Center, and it has provided funds to add a behavioral health specialist position with OSU Extension.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cMental health is a serious issue affecting many of our farm families and rural communities all across the state,\u201d said ODA Director Dorothy Pelanda. \u201cODA is proud to be part of a team leading Ohio\u2019s efforts and putting much-needed resources toward addressing this important topic.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The newest grant will support the expansion of education and training programs designed to build Ohio\u2019s capacity to respond to the mental health needs of the farm and rural population, and it will address mental health concerns such as death by suicide, depression, and anxiety. OSU Extension will work with ODA on marketing and outreach strategies.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
A new federal grant awarded to the Ohio Department of Agriculture (ODA) will support and enhance several initiatives that address<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":29975,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"colormag_page_container_layout":"default_layout","colormag_page_sidebar_layout":"default_layout","nf_dc_page":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1304],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-33765","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-farming"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.westbendnews.net\/autonews\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/08\/Mabis-farming-pic.jpg?fit=1016%2C454&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p2YQd9-8MB","jetpack-related-posts":[],"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-04-26 22:24:53","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.westbendnews.net\/autonews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33765","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.westbendnews.net\/autonews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.westbendnews.net\/autonews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.westbendnews.net\/autonews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.westbendnews.net\/autonews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=33765"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.westbendnews.net\/autonews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33765\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.westbendnews.net\/autonews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/29975"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.westbendnews.net\/autonews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=33765"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.westbendnews.net\/autonews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=33765"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.westbendnews.net\/autonews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=33765"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}