Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Good morning, everyone.
As you just heard, my name is Lisa Ashworth, and I am pleased to speak with you today on behalf of the Agricultural Alliance of New Brunswick. Our organization is the voice of the farmers in our province, and mental health is actually a topic that we have been talking about a lot lately, about what we need to do and how to get there.
It's encouraging that producers are beginning to publicly acknowledge that many of us and our peers have mental health challenges, but it is also bringing to light the fact that the issues facing the agricultural sector are unique, and that there are many deficiencies and gaps in the services available if producers do ask for help.
When I received the email asking me to make this presentation a few days ago, I had to chuckle because I felt that typified the stress in a farm family. Your day is packed. You're behind schedule. You have deadlines you're not meeting, and then you check your messages and you get asked to do just one more thing. You say, “Sure, I'd love to do it”, because it's important and because someone has to get it done. Farmers and their families are people who get things done. That's our culture, but the strong work ethic often comes with a high price. We're finally, thankfully, starting to talk about the price of that.
In doing some background reading, I found it very interesting to note that no matter which scientific journal I chose an article from, there was recognition that farmers are at high risk of having or developing mental health problems due to the unique nature of what we do.
The International Journal of Social Psychiatry begins an article way back in 2005 by reporting, “Farmers experience one of the highest rates of suicide of any industry and there is evidence that those involved in farming are at higher risk of developing mental health problems.”
If we cross the ocean, the Scandinavian Journal of Work, Environment & Health concluded an article by stating, “Farmers had higher odds of having high depression scores compared to both other occupational groups and their siblings who were not working as farmers”.
If all the research shows that our profession predisposes us to mental health challenges, the obvious first step is to ask, “Why?”, which is what we're doing. A 2013 article that caught my eye had quite a handle for a title. It read, “International Perspectives on Psychosocial Working Conditions, Mental Health, and Stress of Dairy Farm Operators”. It contained some information that you've already heard from previous speakers on this panel. It said:
Dairy farm operators...are faced with many demands and stressors in their daily work...farms are highly dependent on external conditions, such as weather, fluctuating markets, and regulations from government authorities. Possible external stressors include disease outbreaks, [tax issues], and recent negative societal attitudes to farming... High work demands and expectations coupled with low control and lack of social support can lead to a poor psychosocial work environment, with increased stress levels, ill mental health, depression, and, in the worst cases, suicide.
I don't want to waste the committee's time by repeating what you have already heard from previous presenters, but it is important to note that while I was reading the proceedings, most of the things that I had jotted down as my initial things to talk about were crossed off the list because they had been brought up.
That emphasizes that we're a diverse country with businesses and geography being quite different, but the issues related to mental health are actually very similar. We have trade wars. We have trade deals. We have interest rates. We have a lot of guilt over trying to find a family-work balance. Most of us live in our workplace. The list of stressors is very long, and the next question is, “What are we going to do about it?”
Coming back to New Brunswick, we haven't done anything yet, but we're trying. We don't have a farm safety program or mental health services offered in an organized fashion. We're a very small province, so resources are always a challenge. We've decided to try to work together. Prince Edward Island and Nova Scotia have some access to counselling services offered to members of their federations of agriculture. Both of those provinces also have resources designated for farm safety programming.
We've agreed to a regional approach to farm safety, sharing knowledge and programming as we can. In New Brunswick, the alliance firmly believes that mental health initiatives would naturally fall under the umbrella of farm safety.
As previous speakers have already mentioned to the committee, having a federally coordinated approach to the development and delivery of mental health resources is the desired approach. This eliminates the duplication and wasting of precious resources as well as ensuring that smaller provinces and more remote locations have what is needed to support their producers and their families.
In order to achieve nationwide benefits, we need more people trained in mental health first aid, and we need reliable broadband access. Telehealth and video conferencing services could be a lifeline in remote locations, if the Internet service was actually high speed and reliable.
As I close, I would like to ask a question that actually results from our family's personal experience with mental health services in recent months. That is, why isn't primary care for mental health covered by medicare in the same way that physical health is covered? Timely interventions not only save the medicare system money in the long term, but they save lives.
I want to thank you for your investment of time on this matter, and I look forward to hearing what actions result from these discussions.