Tuesday was World Mental Health Day, helping to raise awareness of mental health issues and to mobilize efforts in support of mental health. The Purdue Extension Farm Stress Team tries to do this every day as they work to kick the stigma surrounding mental health issues out of rural Indiana.
Purdue Extension Educator and Farm Stress team member Abby Heidenreich says they have a number of resources available at their website, extension.purdue.edu/farmstress. These resources are for farmers but others as well. They recently launched a new Business Toolkit.
“So, people who own a small business, whether that looks like a meatpacking facility, or it looks like an equipment dealership, or something family operated, whatever your business is, this survey is something that your employees can take and that you as an employer can interpret their answers and the results of that survey to identify where the mental health of your employees stands.”
Heidenreich says this is a conversation that small businesses should be having, and this is a good way to start.
“The Farm Stress Team doesn’t get any of the data for that. So, it’s completely anonymous. It’s all you. You download it all and use the data how you want to.”
And it’s not just a survey for the sake of having a survey.
“It gives a lot of good resources on how you might improve some of those things. And you can find that on our website, extension.purdue.edu/farmstress.”
Hear more from Heidenreich and the Purdue Extension Farm Stress Team coming up on this week’s edition of Hoosier Ag This Week airing on several HAT affiliated radio stations this weekend. You can also find it Saturday morning at hoosieragtoday.com.
