I don’t often scare you, but next week (March 13-19) is Canadian farm safety week, and we have lost too many local farmers (over 100) to farm related deaths.
Farming is a more dangerous occupation than policing or being in the armed forces. We think of farming with cows peacefully grazing in a lush green pasture with a red barn in the background.
I only was close to death once when I was about three years old, I lost my grip on the fender of a tractor that dad was loading manure with and fell off behind it. Dad noticed immediately and stopped immediately before backing over me. Dad was always equipped and spread an old tarp on the grass nearby where dad could watch me all the time that he was working in that field, with a few wrenches on the tarp for me to play with, and that’s where I stayed playing and sleeping till dinner time.
I was with dad most every day and learned the dangers of life on the farm from a very young age. Many farm kids are raised that way and learn how dangerous farming is. I have had the opportunity to visit school classrooms and expose children to some of the hazards of being on a farm. On one of these days I was surprised when I asked “how many of you live on a farm”? In three classrooms there were only two children total out of sixty kids who lived on a farm.
This is a very rural farming community. Many farms in our area accept school visits to a real working farm and often the teachers have never visited a farm before either. These encounters with children are most effective when a farmer who has lost a leg, arm, finger, or had some other serious injury on a farm, is the one speaking to the group of kids.
Most of us think we are careful, and nothing will happen on our farm. Farm safety days are one of the least attended information days that anyone tries to put on. If you as a farmer, farm spouse, or farm child have a few minutes, please google CASA which is the Canadian Farm Safety Association. Although about 15 years ago the federal government took away all their funding, CASA is still supported by several provincial governments. They rely heavily on volunteers.
Even before the stresses associated with covid played havoc with our mental health, it was a major health problem in every corner of our world. When I was a kid, it was thought that only crazy people had mental health problems. Even before the covid pressure came on, one person in five experienced some form of a mental health problem and one in 20 have or will contemplate suicide sometime in their life.
The stresses that covid had on our lives doubled the cases of mental health problems even though many of them went undetected and were never treated.
There are many stages of mental health problems that range from mild anxiety to suicide. The fact that people interact much less than our parents or grandparents did has had a huge impact on our mental health. The fact that we are more isolated than before has had a drastic effect on us, but because we visit and interact less there is a greatly reduced number of people silently watching each other for small signs of change. Because of covid restrictions on gatherings, there have been fewer information days to teach people about the different stages of mental strain and how to help.
There have been several one or two-day training sessions to familiarize attendees about mental health. Again, men are very poor at attending these very informative courses even though they are usually offered free of charge. It could be a “macho” thing or maybe the guys are just too busy working. Actually, it is the wife and kids who are the first to notice a change in dad’s behavior.
Although the new suicide prevention hotline will not be operational until November 2023, there are several trained professionals who you can confide in. Call 911 now, or after November 2023 call 988.
There will be information days dealing with farm safety and mental health this spring in the Pontiac area. Please make time to attend and or get someone that you can rely on to attend. Both these sessions can be made available in English or French, as asked for.
Chris Judd is a farmer in Clarendon on land that has been in his family for generations.
gladcrest@gmail.com
