Spotlight on Farm Safety, Health, & Wellness Toolkit for Managing Farm Stress and Mental Health

This webinar covers the most recent resources developed for farmers and service providers by Virginia Cooperative Extension’s Farm Safety, Health, and Wellness Initiative. Here, we’ll share our toolkit that includes discussion-based, decisionmaking, and “best practice” resources for addressing the growing concerns about farm stress and wellbeing, specifically as they pertain to the current coronavirus crisis. These resources address several issues and themes that build upon each other, including: how to identify and manage farm financial stress, understanding stress and grief in farm families, and ways to improve mental health communication and referral strategies with farmers and farm organizations. We will also raise awareness about our current programs led by VCE agents and AgrAbility Virginia field staff for continued education and
community outreach.
Garland Mason, Program Coordinator AgrAbility Virginia*
Nicole Nunoo, Graduate Research Assistant*
Kim Niewolny, Director AgrAbility Virginia & Virginia Beginning Farmer and Rancher Coalition*
*Department of Agricultural, Leadership, and Community Education, Virginia Tech