Amid tariffs, climate change, and economic uncertainty, Illinois farmers and their families can find mental health support from the state’s land-grant institution.
“When we talk to farmers, we hear a lot about time pressures, waiting on the weather, hoping for weather, needing a certain type of weather, feeling as though they have a lot to get done in a relatively short amount of time,” said University of Illinois Associate Professor and Extension Specialist Josie Rudolphi. “And then it's compounded by things like the availability of labor. There's a lot happening in ag labor right now. There's a lot happening globally that's having impacts on the way farmers are able to purchase and plant their crops.”
This uncertainty is causing tremendous stress and anxiety for farmers, said Rudolphi, and Illinois Extension is offering resources to help. “We know that farmers also experience unique barriers to accessing mental health care. And so we've, with funding and support from USDA, we've been able to create a number of initiatives to implement across Illinois in hopes of increasing access to various mental health resources and services."
One of these initiatives is offering three vouchers to farmers and their families at no cost to them to seek mental healthcare. These can be requested online and come with a directory with 80 providers across Illinois’ 102 counties.
“And so with that information, anybody who requests vouchers can then find a provider that's either maybe local to them or somebody who might have experiences that are similar to them. And then what we do is we then reimburse the providers such that there is no financial exchange between the client and the provider,” Rudolphi said.
More information on the vouchers can be found on the Illinois Extension website, along with fact sheets on coping with stress and mental health literacy programs.
“[T]hese are programs that train extension specialists, clergy, farm bureau staff, others in the agricultural space to respond to an emerging mental health crisis,” Rudolphi said. “Maybe I should say by a family member, by a friend, by somebody in their community. Again, we acknowledge that not everybody has mental health intervention skills, but these sorts of programs train again, non mental health professionals to be able to provide support.”
Illinois Extension is also part of the North Central Farm and Ranch Stress Assistance Center, one of four federally funded assistance networks. North Central covers 12 states from North Dakota to Kansas, over to Ohio, and including Michigan. Rudolphi said the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign directs this region, working with 19 partner organizations.
“So we partner with extensions in all 12 states as well as various nonprofits, a few healthcare organizations, and other specialty grower groups to again deliver the resources and services that they may not have access to in hopes that they may be able to better manage their stress, adopt better coping strategies, and hopefully improve their mental health,” Rudolphi said. Those needing care can text HOME to 741741 or call 1-800-273-TALK.
Assistant Dean and Program Leader for Agriculture and Agribusiness at Illinois Extension, Travis Burke, said farmers can access financial planning assistance through its farmdoc FAST Tools website.
“[F]armers have a lot of stress and things that they have to do, like budgets. And this time of year is very critical for coming up with operating capital, looking at their financials to see if they're actually going to be able to continue farming during the next year,” Burke said. “There's a Farm Coach blog on there that provides articles on balance sheets and rent and farm lender and succession planning and that type of thing.”
According to its website, the University of Illinois Extension develops educational programs, extends knowledge, and builds partnerships to support people, communities, and their environments as part of the state's land-grant institution. Extension serves as the leading public outreach effort for the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign and the College of Agricultural, Consumer and Environmental Sciences in all 102 Illinois counties through a network of 27 multi-county units and over 700 staff statewide. Extension’s mission is responsive to eight strategic priorities — community, economy, environment, food and agriculture, health, partnerships, technology and discovery, and workforce excellence — that are served through six program areas — 4-H youth development, agriculture and agribusiness, community and economic development, family and consumer science, integrated health disparities, and natural resources, environment, and energy. Learn more at extension.illinois.edu.
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