Communicating with Farmers Under Stress 7/15/20

Nebraska Extension Author

07/15/2020 Added

28 Plays

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Presented by Nebraska Extension Educators Glennis McClure and Susan Harris-Broomfield.

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[00:02:40.680]Glennis McClure: Clock says it's officially 11 o'clock, so I think we're going to go ahead and get started. I see a lot of people are coming on. I hope know there might be a few that had some trouble we had
[00:02:49.620]Glennis McClure: It just locked out until we got started here. So, so welcome everyone. This is communicating with farmers under stress. We're going to try to get through all of this material.
[00:03:01.140]Glennis McClure: And hopefully make it somewhat interactive for you within an hour and a half. Normally this program would take us about two hours. We've done it a number of times in person. Of course, we want to take time to get to know people.
[00:03:12.660]Glennis McClure: We also understand that webinars. We're on a lot of webinars and we don't like sort of be being stuck on those just too long. So hopefully we're done by 1230 that is our goal.
[00:03:24.300]Glennis McClure: So stress is a subject that's affecting the lives of many farmers in their families. So we'd like for you to offer input through the chat and then go ahead and ask any questions and we'll try to address those. At some point, whether it's
[00:03:38.790]Glennis McClure: As we go along, or at the end, we'll just see how those questions come up. So the material that we're sharing today was authored and designed by a multidisciplinary team at Michigan State University.
[00:03:51.810]Glennis McClure: In their extension area experts included social emotional health educators farmers and agricultural educators and other experts in the field. So Susan and I are on the team as part of the University of Nebraska extension.
[00:04:10.980]Glennis McClure: Slide to advance here alright so Susan's on contact information and my I'll go ahead and let Susan introduce herself.
[00:04:20.760]Susan Harris: Hi everybody, I'm Susan Harris, I am the rural health, wellness and safety.
[00:04:24.450]Susan Harris: Educator Nebraska extension and I'm also a representative for the project. And for those who aren't
[00:04:33.660]Susan Harris: Aware of what agribusiness, it does. It's a grant project through the USDA that I always want to promote and tell people about
[00:04:40.950]Susan Harris: We we help farmers and ranchers who have been disabled in some way, whether it's an injury or a chronic health condition.
[00:04:49.470]Susan Harris: That is not allowing them to do what they always do on the farm. So we do farm assessments for free. We come maybe figure out how they can do things easier find assistive technology and things like that. Other things that I do in my
[00:05:04.740]Susan Harris: In my job is ATV safety I haul around a simulator and I teach about All Terrain Vehicle Safety
[00:05:11.880]Susan Harris: Sleep deprivation is a big one. We will talk a little bit about that in this presentation as well as mental wellness. We've had a lot of programs about stress and mental wellness, including this one so I
[00:05:25.500]Susan Harris: Like Linda said this is, you know, this is from our homes. This is online. It's not perfect. We understand that and we hope that you feel free to maybe get up, make your lunch. As long as you're listening to us. We won't be offended.
[00:05:40.800]Susan Harris: You know, we understand I'm standing right now and I will probably be going out of the frame to eat my lunch. While Glynis is talking because I have to go straight to another program. So it's just it is what it is and
[00:05:51.630]Susan Harris: Again, if you have something a question that you'd like to ask please throw it in the chat box and we'll try to make this interactive as possible.
[00:06:02.010]Glennis McClure: Okay and I'm Glynis McClure extension educator and farm and ranch management analyst and the Department of Ag economics on campus in Lincoln.
[00:06:11.520]Glennis McClure: I am also still working from home, keeping really really busy. I work on the custom rates report, and we just publish that report. I also work on crop and livestock budgets and working on a new budget calculator so
[00:06:25.470]Glennis McClure: I'm really, I guess, very blessed or I feel that way to really be busy during this pandemic and so that part's good, I guess.
[00:06:35.280]Glennis McClure: All right, now also today we have Ryan Evans, who's in our department of ag economics. He's our communication specialist there and he's
[00:06:43.200]Glennis McClure: Really really helpful when it comes to making sure things are running sort of in the background for us now with these webinars so
[00:06:50.610]Glennis McClure: Ryan might might shut out once a while when he sees something's not working right, or whatever. And he's going to help us kind of get through this. We have a team of folks that were trained with the curriculum at Michigan State.
[00:07:01.620]Glennis McClure: And so those folks are also that are on the screen here. Now those folks are also
[00:07:07.440]Glennis McClure: They can deliver this program to and we really appreciate them. And I should mention it will have it on noted later on that.
[00:07:14.580]Glennis McClure: Well, we went to the training, a year ago in January. During a snowstorm went to Lansing East Lansing, Michigan for the training and we didn't realize at the time that the
[00:07:27.240]Glennis McClure: The flood was going to hit, of course, which he didn't make in March.
[00:07:31.890]Glennis McClure: And so it was really timely, I guess that we went to learn about this stress and and you know we knew there was a lot of stress already happening. Boy, but the
[00:07:40.230]Glennis McClure: Flood really added to that this last year and then of course the covert situation. Who would have thought so. We had no idea.
[00:07:47.700]Glennis McClure: You know, we'd be faced with all of these things as we went to that training. So normally we would have you all, introduce yourself. But that's kind of difficult with
[00:07:57.480]Glennis McClure: Being on a webinar that we will take some time, we'll do a one breakout session. So we'll put a few of you together in one room as you talk about your stress.
[00:08:06.960]Glennis McClure: Kind of what what helps you Susan will lead us through that. So we'll, we'll do a little of that. But again, like you say you can chat and we'll try to address the chats that you that you share with us.
[00:08:19.920]Glennis McClure: So, um, the objectives of the program today there are really four of those in that first of all, and most importantly, I think, is wellness of stressful conditions affecting farmers and yourself. WE ALL WE ALL encounter stress.
[00:08:36.510]Glennis McClure: And we'll hear about Stress triggers in signs and then ways to respond and then we'll discuss some techniques of identifying approaching and working with farmers who may not be coping well and then we'll include information on resources and where to go for help.
[00:08:53.700]Glennis McClure: So here's a little informal survey that I'd like to run through with you just kind of think about yourself in the situation that you're in and
[00:09:02.190]Glennis McClure: Um, how you relate to farmers kind of what your background is, and how you can relate and some of you are farmers, I've noticed in the list of
[00:09:09.570]Glennis McClure: registrants who's, who here, but I'm just going to share with you kind of where my perspective is on this. So are you a lifelong multi generational farmer, I should say. In my case, yes, I'll we actually live on the farm. I'm presenting to you from south to be trust.
[00:09:28.230]Glennis McClure: On my husband's farm family's farm and we get there. I grew up just a couple miles from here. So we were highschool sweethearts got married went to college, came back and here we are. And Susan, I think you're presenting from Mindanao area right
[00:09:43.590]Susan Harris: Correct. And in Nebraska.
[00:09:45.450]Glennis McClure: So you kind of know where we're where we are so, so are you in the business that you are in. And I noticed there was a lot of USDA folks. There's some bankers on with us today.
[00:09:56.070]Glennis McClure: Are you in the business because you love it. Okay, um, you know, again, I just been tied to agriculture, my whole life. And I would say yes. Obviously, I understand all the ups and the downs is we've been there, done that.
[00:10:09.660]Glennis McClure: So kind of think about where you are with that.
[00:10:12.330]Glennis McClure: So do you know at least one farmer. He has currently under great stress because of the economic uncertainties of this business or because of a medically related matter right now. First, there might be a lot of
[00:10:24.240]Glennis McClure: Situations where there's medical issues, but also obviously with the pandemic more and more uncertainty seems to have come upon us.
[00:10:35.130]Glennis McClure: So, would you believe that this farmer that you think of that is under stress has adequate support from the existing social and economic safety nets and again the pandemic, really, you know, adding to. I mean, again, the social aspects kind of difficult. It really is. Um, I was on a webinar.
[00:10:56.490]Glennis McClure: A few weeks ago, actually, where we were talking about the egg stress and one gentleman said that you know he lived in town somewhere and he had a farming brother.
[00:11:08.040]Glennis McClure: And he made made it a point to go and not to go there, but to call upon his brother, like every week. So the brother could expect
[00:11:18.660]Glennis McClure: A call and visit with the brother that was in town, especially when we were we were more into lockdown.
[00:11:24.810]Glennis McClure: I thought that was really great. This is the one brother said, You know, I know things are really difficult. And I'm going to reach out and I'm going to be in touch. So
[00:11:32.160]Glennis McClure: I thought that was really a great idea when we're we're kind of challenged right now with some of the social aspects of life.
[00:11:39.360]Glennis McClure: So, so are you prepared to identify and deal with a stress related emergency affecting another farmer. Okay, so we're going to talk, obviously, through this
[00:11:49.920]Glennis McClure: Workshop about sort of being prepared and understanding kind of how you can react and and what you need to do, especially in that emergency situation.
[00:12:00.960]Glennis McClure: Alright, so we all know that farming can be stressful and it can be hard on the body.
[00:12:07.530]Glennis McClure: I'm farm laborers and farm owners had the highest rate of deaths due to stress related conditions such as hard as hard and artery disease, hypertension ulcers.
[00:12:19.260]Glennis McClure: And nervous disorders. This is a study that goes back a few years, but I think it's still prevalent today. Also there's issues with opioid use and misuse in the rural areas.
[00:12:31.440]Glennis McClure: And, you know, really. One thing that makes all this really challenging you think about people that our, our remote is that
[00:12:39.570]Glennis McClure: Oftentimes in our rural areas, we don't have the adequate medical infrastructure to address.
[00:12:45.480]Glennis McClure: The needs of our farmers, so we'll talk later about how unmanaged stress can develop into distress and distress can lead to suicide.
[00:12:54.690]Glennis McClure: Suicide by the ag population is higher than any other occupation group and the next higher. So those involved in extraction work like miners and oil field workers and then heavy construction workers.
[00:13:06.540]Glennis McClure: We had a webinar, again, about a month ago with Dr. Mike roseman out of University of Iowa Iowa and he shared some of those insights
[00:13:15.630]Glennis McClure: So we must all learn to manage our stress level and to reduce the effects of unwanted stress.
[00:13:21.870]Glennis McClure: Too much stress can make a person more accident prone and affect our health and well being. That's why it's important to identify common stressors. Recognize the Symptoms of stress and manage our stress.
[00:13:41.430]Glennis McClure: So I'd like for you to take a moment in and go to the chat. Find the chat and type in, when you think of farmers, what kind of values do farmers have. So what can you share with us on that. I'll try to take a look. Follow along with what what you're sharing
[00:14:10.020]Glennis McClure: If someone says, hardworking loyal again the hard working family connections dedicated true strong work ethic honest dependable friendly family values comes in again know we're kind of tied to tie to our businesses right here.
[00:14:32.340]Glennis McClure: Tough and not vulnerable. Okay, what are the thoughts come to your mind as far as values knowledgeable. That's good.
[00:14:43.110]Glennis McClure: protective of their land. Okay, yeah, minute to God family work okay I'll really really their provider. Okay, good. So
[00:14:57.120]Glennis McClure: So you can think about, I think, determination, a lot of these things were mentioned the other business people and they strive to be successful, just as all business people do.
[00:15:07.530]Glennis McClure: So how do these values make situations in farming unique compared to other occupation. So have you heard about the agrarian imperative.
[00:15:16.740]Glennis McClure: And again, Dr roseman. Um, did a lot of work in identifying what this is and it refers to the powerful connection farmers have with their land and animals that's difficult to break
[00:15:29.460]Glennis McClure: This connection is part of the farmers identities and if farmers have to consider career options other than farming, it can make this consideration, very difficult.
[00:15:39.450]Glennis McClure: And we've been there. We started farming and I worked with farmers actually in the 80s during the fire crisis.
[00:15:45.570]Glennis McClure: But we were young farmers, just back from college at that point in time.
[00:15:49.470]Glennis McClure: And you know, I could imagine myself, of course, I've had, you know, a career that's been well connected with agriculture, but my husband's a farmer and you know i know that, you know, if we lost the farm. It would really, really be devastating to them.
[00:16:05.670]Glennis McClure: As farmers, we really try hard to overcome threats. If we can't overcome the threats we feel like a failure.
[00:16:13.830]Glennis McClure: And we try really hard to keep what we have been what's been handed down to us from our parents and grandparents or other family members.
[00:16:21.390]Glennis McClure: And we really feel bad if we can't keep it together for our children. So again, I understand that from the perspective of where I'm coming from. And I, I'm sure that many of you do.
[00:16:36.630]Okay.
[00:16:39.630]Glennis McClure: Trying to switch slides.
[00:16:46.320]Glennis McClure: Okay, so I'm gonna do a few slides here, and I'm just going to kind of breeze through this because I kind of feel like we're preaching to the choir today, you guys.
[00:16:56.370]Glennis McClure: Have bankers on we have USDA folks on we have many folks and you really understand
[00:17:01.650]Glennis McClure: Kind of what's been going on with the financial situation with farmers, so I'm just going to kind of show you the slides. If you'll allow me to breeze through this here my computer works well.
[00:17:11.610]Glennis McClure: But anyway, I'm really students are net farm income, you can kind of see where where that's been and
[00:17:20.970]Glennis McClure: So since the 20 1120 1213 we had record years and this has led to a situation now where net farm income has declined about 50% since that peak.
[00:17:33.900]Glennis McClure: And there again.
[00:17:35.820]Glennis McClure: We've had a 26% decline in Nebraska net farming comes in 2008 yes we've had the ups and the down their peaks and valleys.
[00:17:45.480]Glennis McClure: These charts were updated by NASA USDA now as I'm as of June 30 so you can see the price the corn, soybeans and wheat prices and I, as I mentioned, I work with crop and livestock budgets and so we look at sort of what are the breakeven points are the cost of production of of
[00:18:07.800]Glennis McClure: Grain and livestock and really right now the way things are this year. We're barely make breaking
[00:18:16.440]Glennis McClure: breakeven with many of the prices, the way they are at the current state.
[00:18:23.190]Glennis McClure: And then we had to get a webinar, where we had the Kansas City Omaha, instead of director in and they do an egg credit survey and one banker had commented that it was going to be a tough year even before the coronavirus hit
[00:18:38.490]Glennis McClure: So again, these are some charts that they shared and how how things were looking at that point in time.
[00:18:45.420]Glennis McClure: Or net farming come in Nebraska ranking that took the total number here is
[00:18:51.570]Glennis McClure: Is California in Tennessee, where the rest of the states lie and where we are in the scheme of things on that farm income. This is as of 2018 and
[00:18:59.880]Glennis McClure: It's going to kind of slip through that one. But again, think of all the reasons why we've had issues.
[00:19:08.130]Glennis McClure: You know, and we've had the flooding last year and I know there's many parts of the state now that are headed into this drought. So not only do we have price uncertainties, but we've got
[00:19:17.280]Glennis McClure: Some weather issues going on. I knew in Southeast Alaska. We had good rain last night and I know a lot of people wish they had the rain that we had
[00:19:25.440]Glennis McClure: So it's just really one of those one of those things. So I really kind of flipped through that information pretty quickly. If you have any questions, be sure to let me know I can share more information with you.
[00:19:38.760]Glennis McClure: But just in summary of this section. So this was put together. Keep in mind, we picked up this curriculum back in early 2019
[00:19:47.430]Glennis McClure: And this was slide. We haven't changed price volatility will continue to exist and mini agricultural markets are various for the near future.
[00:19:55.980]Glennis McClure: Alright, so we have that going on. Last year we had the flood. Now we've got the pin damage and so we're, we're still seeing
[00:20:03.120]Glennis McClure: Farm struggling to cover cash flow so year orange net worth is negative for many multi multiple sectors of the ag industry and we've had it. We've had it hit on the green side and the livestock side this year. And then we've got that financial stress.
[00:20:17.250]Glennis McClure: Putting prolonged stress and causing mental and physical health issues with farmers and ranchers. Alright. So with that, I'm going to turn it over to Susan and she's going to lead us through a discussion of identify and managing stress in ourselves and others.
[00:20:37.650]Susan Harris: All right. Do you see that okay I always have to ask
[00:20:43.860]Susan Harris: Our alright
[00:20:44.700]Susan Harris: So, yes. In this next segment we are going to talk about identifying stress, not just in farmers and ranchers, but in ourselves. We have found that to be really helpful in these workshops that people are learning things about themselves. And then in turn that can be helpful.
[00:20:59.820]Susan Harris: In dealing with the other people in your lives and and communicating with them in stressful situations.
[00:21:06.750]Susan Harris: So what is stress can never be good.
[00:21:11.190]Susan Harris: Absolutely it can be good, it can it can get you to raise up and meet a challenge and get through that challenge and then come back down to the level that you were before.
[00:21:23.880]Susan Harris: Stress is something. Notice that word perceived you know it's perceived as burdensome or threatening so stresses affect us all differently. And it's all about how we perceive it, how we react to it and what we do with that.
[00:21:39.960]Susan Harris: I believe this next. Okay, so these are some of the stressors that farmers and ranchers have in their lives. Some of them are chronic or ongoing. Some of them are sudden and they might go away quickly.
[00:21:56.190]Susan Harris: But I think you'll agree that those are all things that most people who don't farm and ranch.
[00:22:02.790]Susan Harris: Have to deal with, you know, if you don't have this type of a job. You don't deal with any of these things. So it's just added stressors to the daily life that we all have. And what I'd like to add to this, but does not on here.
[00:22:13.650]Susan Harris: Is health care insurance because oh my gosh, if you are self employed and you have to pay for that health care insurance with a high deductible and then still pay for your health care, you know, that's another financial concern.
[00:22:30.390]Susan Harris: So talking about stress in our bodies as long as mentioned, it really does affect our bodies. And this is something that many of us might not consider in it, Ryan. If you want to go ahead and set up that video.
[00:22:42.390]Susan Harris: This is a funny little video that's kind of odd, but it really gets the point across. Every time I watch it. It makes me think more and more about managing my own stress because it does things for our bodies.
[00:23:03.930]cramming for a test, trying to get more done than you have time to do stress is a feeling. We all experience when we are challenged or overwhelmed, but more than just an emotion stress is a hardwired physical response that travels throughout your entire body.
[00:23:24.030]In the short term stress can be advantageous. But when activated too often for too long. Your primitive fight or flight stress response, not only changes your brain, but also damages, many of the other organs and cells throughout your body.
[00:23:41.310]Your adrenal gland releases the stress hormones cortisol epinephrine, also known as adrenaline and norepinephrine.
[00:23:50.340]As these hormones travel through your bloodstream, they easily reach your blood vessels and heart.
[00:23:56.430]Adrenaline causes your heart to beat faster and raises your blood pressure over time, causing a potential
[00:24:04.140]Cortisol can also cause the endothelial or inner lining of blood vessels to not function normally.
[00:24:11.280]Scientists now know that this is an early step in treating the process of atherosclerosis, or cholesterol plaque buildup in your arteries.
[00:24:21.210]Together, these changes increase your chances of a heart attack or stroke when your brain senses stress it activates your autonomic nervous system through this network of nerve connections, your big brain communicates stress to your interest or intestinal nervous system.
[00:24:42.390]Besides, causing butterflies in your stomach. This brain gut connection can disturb the natural rhythmic contractions that move food through your gut.
[00:24:52.350]Leading to irritable bowel syndrome and can increase your gut sensitivity to acid making you more likely to feel heartburn.
[00:25:00.630]Via the guts nervous system stress can also change the composition and function of your gut bacteria which may affect your digestive and overall health.
[00:25:11.910]Speaking of digestion does chronic stress affect your waistline. Well, yes, cortisol can increase your appetite.
[00:25:19.620]It tells your body to replenish your energy stores with energy dense foods and carbs, causing you to crave comfort foods.
[00:25:28.830]High levels of cortisol can also cause you to put on those extra calories as a visceral or deep belly fat.
[00:25:35.970]This type of fat doesn't just make it harder to button your pants.
[00:25:39.570]It is an organ that actively releases hormones and immune system chemicals called cytokines that can increase your risk of developing chronic diseases such as heart disease and insulin resistance.
[00:25:52.230]Meanwhile, stress hormones affect immune cells in a variety of ways. Initially they help prepare to fight invaders and heal after injury.
[00:26:01.440]But chronic stress can dampen the function of some immune cells make you more susceptible to infections and slow the rate you heal want to live a long life.
[00:26:12.210]You may have to curb your chronic stress. That's because it has even been associated with shortened telomeres. The shoelace tip ends of chromosomes that measure a cell's age.
[00:26:23.790]Telomeres cap chromosomes to allow DNA to get copied every time a cell divides without damaging the cells genetic code.
[00:26:31.980]And they shorten with each cell division. When telomeres become too short a cell can no longer divide and it dies.
[00:26:40.470]As if all that weren't enough chronic stress has even more ways it can sabotage your health, including acne hair loss sexual dysfunction headaches muscle tension difficulty concentrating fatigue and irritability.
[00:26:56.310]So what does all this mean for you, your life will always be filled with stressful situations, but what matters to your brain and entire body is how you respond to that stress.
[00:27:08.880]If you can view those situations as challenges you can control and pastor, rather than as threats that are insurmountable. You will perform better in the short run, and stay healthy in the long run.
[00:27:32.160]Susan Harris: Right. So how many of you are aware, aware that stress does that physically to us it manifests itself physically so many times, and yet so many times we don't see that.
[00:27:44.910]Susan Harris: This is a an example from dr john shut ski out of Wisconsin, I believe, and he has the best analogy for this. He said, thousands of years ago, a person who stumbled upon a saber tooth tiger or other predator.
[00:27:58.470]Susan Harris: Would be more likely to survive the encounter if he or she was able to spring up and sprint away swiftly.
[00:28:03.540]Susan Harris: An increase in blood pressure and heart rate and a slow down of digestive processes meant more energy could be directed toward escaping these threats.
[00:28:10.830]Susan Harris: If they couldn't run quickly enough. The odds are surviving if wounded by the Hungry Tiger. We're better if their blood clotting quickly. So here we are thousands of years later with that same biological makeup.
[00:28:22.530]Susan Harris: And we know that having stress means that cortisol, as we just saw in that video increases sugars in the bloodstream, so it can motivate us to act like the guy running from the tiger. However,
[00:28:35.400]Susan Harris: When that cortisol sits there and and remains elevated because of chronic stress it looks something like that in our bodies, you know, and we already learned that it creates heart disease lowered immune response sexual dysfunction, depression, all of these things so
[00:28:56.850]Susan Harris: We just want you to understand that stress is not just up here, and that's a difficult one to comprehend stress affects us overall physically as well. So now we're getting to the point where I want you to think about your own stress and your own reactions to stress and
[00:29:18.720]Susan Harris: This is where we're going to put you in a chat room. So if you would take a piece of paper and a pen right now and jot down the things in this
[00:29:27.510]Susan Harris: Chart that apply to you when you are feeling stressed or do you react react physically, emotionally behaviorally cognitively or is your self worth affected.
[00:29:39.630]Susan Harris: And maybe you have a combination of one or two of these. So take some notes on this. I'll give you a minute here to write down
[00:29:48.900]Susan Harris: What describes you and feel free to talk about someone else when we put you in these chat rooms. You don't have to divulge all of your personal information you can talk about a colleague, a co worker or
[00:30:01.170]Susan Harris: A spouse or a son or a daughter, somebody that you work with, feel free to talk about
[00:30:07.080]Susan Harris: Whatever you would like. It's a very short time, we have four or five minutes for you. So there'll be about five of us in a chat room.
[00:30:13.650]Susan Harris: I'd like you to just quickly introduce yourself, where you're from, what you do and then share
[00:30:20.280]Susan Harris: Symptoms of stress, either in yourself or someone else. So I will leave that up to you. And then we're going to come back and just chat quickly about it and we won't share what everyone said, I promise.
[00:30:31.890]Susan Harris: Alright, so, Ryan. If you want to divide us up into chat rooms right now. This would be good.
[00:36:26.880]Susan Harris: There we go. Can everybody hear me now. I think I was muted.
[00:36:34.560]Ryan Evans: Sounds good. Susan
[00:36:35.580]Susan Harris: Okay, good, but that chat room always throws me off a little bit. So I hope you had some interesting chats. I know in our group, everybody was different.
[00:36:46.950]Susan Harris: And if I had you in the room. I think we would be hard pressed to find someone in the entire room that was exactly like the other person so
[00:36:56.280]Susan Harris: The whole point of that activity, which I think is one of the most useful things that we do in this workshop is to share with you to show you that everyone reacts differently to stress. So just because
[00:37:08.730]Susan Harris: I have a cognitive reaction to stress, doesn't mean I should expect to see that in everyone else someone else might look totally different. They might be
[00:37:19.050]Susan Harris: More violent or physical when they get stressed. So consider the people you work with. Consider your family. Consider yourself and just think about, you know, if, have you had some people exhibiting any of these signs lately, and if so,
[00:37:33.180]Susan Harris: Perhaps it's just because they are stressed. So here's something to that I want to mention, we've done a lot of these workshops and we've had
[00:37:43.380]Susan Harris: One particular lady who has attended three of them.
[00:37:47.160]Susan Harris: And at the third workshop, you know, we always talk about this, we show the video we talked about how stress manifest itself physically
[00:37:54.180]Susan Harris: And there can be all these different ways of reacting distress.
[00:37:56.970]Susan Harris: Well, she raised her hand at this point. And the third workshop that she was in. And she said, I have to share with with you, she said, I've been to two other workshops. This is my third time.
[00:38:06.780]Susan Harris: And she said, apparently. It took me this long to get it into my head what you're saying because my daughter and my 16 year old daughter was experiencing all kinds of physical problems.
[00:38:16.860]Susan Harris: And we took her to doctor after doctor, the doctors would put her on medicines they tell her this and that and like we couldn't figure out what was wrong with her until one night when she happened to mention, Mom. I am so stressed out.
[00:38:27.330]Susan Harris: About something and she said it was like this light bulb went off over my head and I was sitting back in this workshop. And I remember you saying that stress manifests itself, physically, but I had never even considered that for my young daughter, she said, sure enough, we got her to behavioral
[00:38:43.230]Susan Harris: Therapist and got her some counseling and she's doing great.
[00:38:49.080]Susan Harris: So I think it's something that a lot of us tend to not see is that physical side of it. So I hope that you will consider that now.
[00:38:58.230]Susan Harris: If, if you have health problems or someone you love has health, health problems or someone you work with has health problems. So
[00:39:05.760]Susan Harris: These are some signs. Signs and symptoms of chronic prolonged stress when it is ongoing and that cortisol level is constantly up there.
[00:39:15.060]Susan Harris: There could be a change in routine of your farmers and ranchers, they might not be going to. I know we don't have coffee groups anymore. Probably or church but they're pulling out of activities like that and being even more isolated than we are right now.
[00:39:31.050]Ryan Evans: Sorry to interrupt, but can you share your slide.
[00:39:34.140]Susan Harris: Is it not being shared right now. Oh dear.
[00:39:44.040]Susan Harris: Don't you love technology.
[00:39:54.180]Susan Harris: Is that better.
[00:39:57.150]Ryan Evans: There we go.
[00:39:57.960]Susan Harris: Okay. See, this is why we have Ryan he keeps us on track. We couldn't do it without him.
[00:40:03.450]Ryan Evans: Looks good.
[00:40:04.380]Susan Harris: Okay, so now back to this. So there could be the change in routine, the care of their livestock or even the appearance of their farmstead could be deteriorating.
[00:40:16.350]Susan Harris: They may not be mowing or just may not be animals like they shouldn't be that kind of thing. Again, there could be an increase in illness. I can't emphasize that enough.
[00:40:25.590]Susan Harris: That could absolutely be because of stress and they could be. They could have children, showing signs of stress, they might be acting out or showing a decline and interest or or school work or something like that.
[00:40:40.980]Susan Harris: So these are just some some suggestions on how to handle stressed stress and the first one deep breathing is something that a lot of times
[00:40:52.020]Susan Harris: People kind of poo poo. And they roll their eyes out like yeah right breathing. That's easy. I do that every day. Well it research after research has shown that
[00:41:02.040]Susan Harris: Controlled breathing absolutely helps your stress level. So one
[00:41:07.140]Susan Harris: One method that they taught us at Michigan State is called box breathing. It's where you and you can do it along with me if you want you breathe in count to four.
[00:41:15.870]Susan Harris: Imagine a box. Hold it for four counts. Breathe out while you're counting to four and hold it for four accounts.
[00:41:24.420]Susan Harris: And do it again and just create that image of the box in your head. Every time you breathe in, you hold it without hold it, you're just
[00:41:31.950]Susan Harris: You're kind of distracting yourself and you're controlling her body. It's the one thing you can do to be in control and it really
[00:41:38.850]Susan Harris: helps lower that stress level and another suggestion, personally, it's my favorite is just counting up to five while you breathe in.
[00:41:48.240]Susan Harris: And then counting down to seven as you breathe out. And the trick here is to always exhale longer than you inhale, if you're trying to get rid of stress.
[00:41:58.020]Susan Harris: If you're trying to pump yourself up, you did it the other way. But it's scientifically proven that if you inhale for a shorter time than exhale for a longer time that relaxes you.
[00:42:08.580]Susan Harris: self talk is a big one. And we talked about that in our chat room a little bit about self esteem and how people pound you down.
[00:42:16.920]Susan Harris: You know, you need to be this person that lift yourself up and I asked you, Would you say to a friend or a colleague, you idiot. Why did you do that. Why didn't you think of this or that. Of course not.
[00:42:27.810]Susan Harris: So don't talk to yourself that way, you know, talk to yourself positively and keep things positive in your head, whenever possible.
[00:42:35.400]Susan Harris: meditating. I would love to know if anybody meditates and what you do. You can put that in the chat box. There are a lot of apps out there that you can use, like headspace
[00:42:45.690]Susan Harris: There's just so many that that I can't mention but it's 10 or 15 minutes out of your day and it's
[00:42:51.210]Susan Harris: Essentially just focusing on something. It allows your brain to just focus and become meditating could also mean just being out in nature, taking a walk and focusing on that it could be prayer, it could be whatever you want it to be.
[00:43:06.060]Susan Harris: Exercise foods and sleep. That's a whole other presentation. I like to say activity rather than exercise because you know
[00:43:15.600]Susan Harris: Activity that you love as much more fun than exercising. Oh there's somebody that a fit on. That's another okay that's a meditation app. I didn't realize I never heard that one.
[00:43:28.950]Susan Harris: So anyway.
[00:43:30.660]Susan Harris: Foods, you know, a lot of us are guilty of eating processed foods and junk food. And again, we don't think about it, but this is creating stress on our body, our body has to
[00:43:43.830]Susan Harris: Go through a process to digest these things that aren't really food and that is already a layer of stress that we have
[00:43:51.720]Susan Harris: So if you're not exercising and your body isn't getting what it needs from that. And if you're eating bad food your stress level just keeps rising already, even though you don't see it. Then when you're not sleeping and you're fatigued.
[00:44:04.800]Susan Harris: All of these things, put your stress level up to this high point before a stressful event even happens in your life.
[00:44:12.540]Susan Harris: So consider that the less that you stress your body, the better you will react to the stress when it happens to you.
[00:44:20.310]Susan Harris: And I think Ryan's going to put in the chat box, my list of 30 sleep tips and tricks. It's a document that you can click on and I do programs about sleep deprivation. It's my passion.
[00:44:33.630]Susan Harris: There are so many things that that we can do in our life to be healthier. This is, this happens to be a really easy one. You know, there are just ways to do it correctly.
[00:44:42.420]Susan Harris: And of course, connecting with people in your social network that is difficult. Now, but as Glenna said phone calls texts.
[00:44:48.990]Susan Harris: Try to do something once a day to connect with people and maybe connect with those farmers and ranchers that you work with, just to just to reach out and tell show them that you care.
[00:44:57.120]Susan Harris: And of course, speaking with a mental health professional. There's a lot of the tele health situations going on now. During the code pandemic and that's highly recommended. It's just a matter of talking to people can can help you out.
[00:45:14.040]Susan Harris: So identifying your social support system is critical.
[00:45:18.780]Susan Harris: You know, it was shown in a study that lower levels of sort of social support results are resulted in higher depression scores so
[00:45:28.470]Susan Harris: Reading that backwards, the more support you have, the more friends, you are able to talk to people you can reach out to the less chance you have of being depressed.
[00:45:39.990]Susan Harris: So also think about maybe in your, your business or your community. What can you do to effectively promote this and I know this is a hard time to ask that because we can't get out and get together.
[00:45:54.240]Susan Harris: But thinking ahead to when we are able to, you know, maybe. What could your business do to to help that maybe uh maybe do tailgate events or something, it would be a good time to plan events. And as soon as we are able to, and it's and it's safe to do so let's get back together again.
[00:46:18.390]Susan Harris: So now I believe Glynis is going to talk about working with farmers. Farmers to
[00:46:24.000]Susan Harris: High level of stress.
[00:46:25.830]Glennis McClure: Yeah, there were a couple other
[00:46:28.170]Glennis McClure: Mentioned in the chat using devotional as a form of meditation, yoga on joined a Bible group that focuses on a scripture verse each day and shares online.
[00:46:40.590]Glennis McClure: So that may be think to my sister in law. I think it was well it was for Christmas gave me a devotional book and I tell you what that thing is really been helpful for me through this pandemic and
[00:46:51.990]Glennis McClure: And, you know, I'm trying to be faithful and looking at it every day because you know our church connections in a little strange to obviously with some of this. So okay, so
[00:47:02.160]Glennis McClure: Yeah.
[00:47:02.760]Susan Harris: Go ahead. I was gonna say, I can relate to the yoga, one that is very calming. I love that.
[00:47:07.620]Glennis McClure: Yeah, okay.
[00:47:09.840]Glennis McClure: So I want to go ahead and show my screen now.
[00:47:16.620]Glennis McClure: So do you see that now working with farmers who may be struggling with high levels of stress.
[00:47:22.410]Glennis McClure: Yes. No. Okay, good. We just have to check. We're going back and forth. And so, and, you know, with double screens. It's like, where are we, it's always fun.
[00:47:30.720]Glennis McClure: Alright, so I know a lot of you, you know, signed on to this in that you work directly with farmers and ranchers and you know what, what do you how do you handle all of this. So it's really, we're going to talk about the communication aspect of of this program now.
[00:47:49.650]Glennis McClure: All right, so how how many of you would feel comfortable and confident. If you needed to intervene with a farmer who sense who sense what you sense was severely stress.
[00:48:02.070]Glennis McClure: So on the next few minutes, we'll talk about preparing to approach someone who seems to be under great stress.
[00:48:08.220]Glennis McClure: And beginning the dialogue to find out what is the problem. And we'll focus on the process of active listening research and experience tells us that
[00:48:18.690]Glennis McClure: Listening can be the most valuable action you can take in this type of situation.
[00:48:24.690]Glennis McClure: And the most useful form of listening is active listening, which to me means it's you're really listening. It can also be done in a way that helps the person define the situation and develop a personal action plan to address it.
[00:48:39.210]Glennis McClure: So next will suggest some things to do and not to do when you're in a tight situation, and we'll talk about how to prepare for an action plan.
[00:48:51.900]Glennis McClure: So as you're thinking and planning ahead. So you're getting ready to meet with some farmers, you're getting ready to go out for a visit so
[00:48:59.430]Glennis McClure: You want to think first about what is your purpose. Why are you going are you just going to be checking the crops kind of making a general visit
[00:49:06.510]Glennis McClure: Or are you actually going to be talking about some really tough issues like, you know, selling out or you know really something that's really, really tough.
[00:49:16.020]Glennis McClure: So you're going to have very different reactions and kind of how you plan ahead. So once you've made the decision to get involved that before you approach the person you want to spend some time thinking about what you're going to do to help this person.
[00:49:30.630]Glennis McClure: So answering each of these questions in your head, prior to going to the medium or farm will help you be prepared.
[00:49:37.800]Glennis McClure: So ask yourself these questions and have answers for them before your visit. This will help you formulate your game plan. So you can see the questions. Who are you meeting, who you encounter. How much time you're going to have
[00:49:50.160]Glennis McClure: How much time are you willing to commit to you because you just never know. You know what you might run into. Do you have resources and, you know, what's their preferred method of receiving information and then how can you be a value to them, just in the short term, or even the long term.
[00:50:11.100]Glennis McClure: So I think a lot of videos kind of preparing and having the right mindset.
[00:50:15.780]Glennis McClure: So you have the sort of mental posture that you'll bring that will that will be positive in this situation. So now we're going to turn to rename that brown video on empathy.
[00:50:27.690]Glennis McClure: And I would like for you to consider and think about what's the difference between empathy and sympathy in this video. Hey Ryan, take it away.
[00:50:51.660]So what is empathy and why is it very different than sympathy empathy fuels connection sympathy drives disconnection.
[00:51:02.370]Empathy. It's a very interesting Teresa Wiseman is a nursing scholar who studied professions very diverse professions where empathy is relevant and came up with four qualities of empathy perspective taking.
[00:51:15.720]The ability to take the perspective of another person or recognize their perspective. Is there truth. Staying out of judgment. Not easy when you enjoy it as much as most of us do.
[00:51:26.280]Recognizing emotion and other people and then communicating that empathy is feeling with people.
[00:51:33.900]And to me, I always think of empathy is this kind of sacred space when someone's kind of in a deep hole and they shout out in the bottom. And they say,
[00:51:43.320]I'm stuck. It's dark. I'm overwhelmed and then we look and we say, Hey, I'm down. I know what it's like down here and you're not alone. Sympathy is. Oh.
[00:51:58.050]It's bad. Uh huh.
[00:52:01.500]Now you won't see much
[00:52:06.510]If it. He is a choice. And it's a vulnerable choice because in order to connect with you. I have to connect with something in myself that knows that feeling rarely, if ever, has an empathic response begin with at least
[00:52:23.250]I had it. Yeah. And we do it all the time because you know what someone just shared something with us. That's incredibly painful and we're trying to silver lining it. I don't think that's a verb, but I'm using it as one we're trying to put this a little wine eat around it. So I had a miscarriage.
[00:52:41.430]At least you know you can get pregnant. I think my marriage is falling apart. At least you have a marriage.
[00:52:51.240]John's getting kicked out of school at least Sarah isn't a student, but one of the things we do sometimes in the face of very difficult conversations is we try to make things better if I share something with you that's very difficult. I'd rather you say
[00:53:09.300]I don't even know what to say right now, I'm just so glad you told me
[00:53:13.440]Because the truth is really can a response make something better. What makes something better is connection.
[00:53:34.320]Glennis McClure: Okay back on.
[00:53:38.070]Susan Harris: Already so
[00:53:40.770]Glennis McClure: What's that
[00:53:41.520]Susan Harris: There you go. It's
[00:53:42.510]Glennis McClure: The second buster. Alright, so
[00:53:44.310]Glennis McClure: What did you find there when you're thinking about empathy and sympathy.
[00:53:49.680]Glennis McClure: I think a sympathy, is that you feel sorry you feel have a sorry of fulfilling or sort of pity.
[00:53:55.800]Glennis McClure: And empathy is you're really trying to put yourself in their shoes and understand
[00:54:00.450]Glennis McClure: Their feelings and as if they were your own. And that's, that's kind of hard to do, I guess. This has been kind of an amazing sort of journey with this curriculum and thinking about, you know, these topics, because you know we're quick to sort of bring sympathy, but how quick, are we to really
[00:54:18.510]Glennis McClure: You know, put ourselves in that you know and and provide empathy. So do you feel like you could provide empathy to someone. Can you think of things from their perspective.
[00:54:27.630]Glennis McClure: And you might discover quickly that they might be in a critical situation. If you can truly do that. So keep in mind that your client or whoever you're visiting maybe answers.
[00:54:37.980]Glennis McClure: They need to play an active role in coming up with these answers to ensure the level of commitment required going forward. Can you help them think discover and live with the possible outcomes of decisions to be made.
[00:55:02.070]Glennis McClure: So if you know someone facing a difficult situation conflict and stress, maybe building, be prepared to start the conversation with something that is related
[00:55:13.560]Glennis McClure: To the relationship that you've already had with them. So be empathetic in their situation. So asking questions like, well, how are you doing really, sincerely asking, How are you doing, how are you sleeping.
[00:55:25.500]Glennis McClure: How are you handling or dealing with whatever's going on in their life or in any anything behavioral related question might be helpful.
[00:55:34.950]Glennis McClure: It's better to talk about those things. First, rather than first mentioning something about stress.
[00:55:41.160]Glennis McClure: So communicating through conflict involves dialogue dialogue that is open, honest and involves a lot of listening. It takes practice.
[00:55:50.430]Glennis McClure: So you're going to try to preserve the relationship and open up for the conversation. So I think it's important to think about these things tell the facts and the impacts on yourself and others without judgment or blame.
[00:56:03.600]Glennis McClure: Explain the outcome you want. I'd really like us to resolve this in a way that works for both of us to try and try and come up with something that can be mutually acceptable and ask for other views. How do you see the situation and am I missing anything here in my understanding of it.
[00:56:22.140]Glennis McClure: So you probably back when you went to school you learned about the listening continuum. I think Michigan State sort of did some work on this and refined some of this.
[00:56:32.700]Glennis McClure: So we're going to go through this continuum. And what this could mean in the situation. But keep in mind, Stephen Covey said. Most people do not listen with the intent to understand they listen with the intent to reply.
[00:56:46.080]Glennis McClure: And I'm often guilty of that I'm listening to somebody and I'm thinking, Hmm, how do I respond to that. Right. So this is the Listening continuum. And the first four points on the listening contain continuum is you're asking, and you're trying to understand
[00:57:02.430]Glennis McClure: All right, so with asking asking is where the conversation starts is when someone is invited to say something through voice or another communication mode, you know how it how it is.
[00:57:13.470]Glennis McClure: Often, we're thinking I'm going, how am I going to respond to this kind of as I just mentioned, and we don't get things rolling good with this asked where the conversation starts
[00:57:24.120]Glennis McClure: And then probing probing as a way to gently gather more information to help one, help us understand just I'd like to know more, you know, to probe into the situation and really get it get a good idea. So attending means paying attention.
[00:57:41.280]Glennis McClure: So watch and pay attention to nonverbal cues body language I contact or the lack thereof. Then, next one is restating to you're simply going to repeat what one things was said. And that's a verbatim. So again, these first four points that continuum. You're asking and you're trying to understand
[00:58:06.180]Glennis McClure: So the next point is paraphrasing, so I'm paraphrasing you're using your own words to restate what the speaker says saying it in a different way. In other words, I'm hearing this. Did I, did I get that right.
[00:58:20.760]Glennis McClure: Summarizing is the next thing and that's. Paraphrasing, paraphrasing and adding the emotion that seemed to be expressed by the Speaker So from what you're saying. I sense that you're feeling
[00:58:33.840]Glennis McClure: This is that right. So you're trying to understand again where they're at with this. And the last point is reframing and that is in a neutral or unbiased terms, your
[00:58:46.470]Glennis McClure: What one thing so speaker really wants or needs and you're saying like, I'm hearing that you'd like this to happen is that right to kind of checking as to where they're coming from. So the last three points that you're really validating working to validate their feelings.
[00:59:02.010]Glennis McClure: So next, you're going to develop hopefully a shared purpose and resolving should you tell them the solution should you tell them the solution. This is what I think you need to do.
[00:59:14.160]Glennis McClure: You can probably give Kenyan in a nice way, and understanding way but you really want to help them come to the solution. They should be part of figuring out this situation and solution.
[00:59:29.580]Glennis McClure: So you just kind of take practice again an active listening. We're building trust and rapport and demonstrating concern.
[00:59:38.280]Glennis McClure: And so you can see the examples here, just some examples of what you might
[00:59:43.110]Glennis McClure: Use when you're trying to get it to active listening things. Can you think of things that you might say that you use.
[00:59:50.310]Glennis McClure: When you're trying to get to a point and really understand where someone's coming from. So just simply saying like, Tell me more. And thank you for sharing with me.
[00:59:59.940]Glennis McClure: You know, I know this is a difficult situation is difficult to talk about. So I really appreciate you helping me understand those could be some examples that you might use
[01:00:11.670]Glennis McClure: So in stressful situations, you know, these are some things that you might say, I know of several farms in similar situations. That's one of the things that we're
[01:00:21.720]Glennis McClure: With our rural wellness team is that, and I think you all know that there's many farmers and they're really not alone there. A lot of them are in a similar situation and sometimes that helps, sometimes it doesn't.
[01:00:33.960]Glennis McClure: But, you know, talking about, Hey, I know of others that are in similar situations, but even going further to say
[01:00:40.320]Glennis McClure: Well, I know you know I've been in that situation, or I know people that have been situation. And this is what they've done. So again, trying to help them with ideas.
[01:00:49.290]Glennis McClure: And, you know, writing down the pros and the cons, you know, just kind of helping them with some thoughts and some solutions can be really well received.
[01:00:59.100]Glennis McClure: So also, we will be sending to view a bunch of
[01:01:04.320]Glennis McClure: Handouts so there'll be a link and you'll be able to go into get some of the handouts that Michigan State put together and some of our other partners and I know there's one dare that's really good from North Dakota State.
[01:01:15.390]Glennis McClure: On but there's one called how to talk with farmers under stress. That's a handout that you'll be getting
[01:01:20.760]Glennis McClure: And on the second page of that there are some of these examples. So you'll have in hand, if you want to print that off. You can practice these things with some of your
[01:01:28.920]Glennis McClure: co workers. Let's say you're going to be facing some farmers that have some difficult situations, you know, so maybe doing some practice and getting, you know, doing some traps.
[01:01:37.590]Glennis McClure: Ahead of time, but you'll have those handouts and as soon as we're done, we have the list of participants and we'll send
[01:01:43.980]Glennis McClure: That out to you, we didn't, we didn't send it out ahead of time because it's pretty overwhelming. There's just a lot of stuff there and and the pdf of the program will be included in that list of of handouts as well.
[01:01:59.700]Glennis McClure: So as Susan mentioned, you know, again, think about yourself to how are you handling this you know you know you're running into a stressful situation so
[01:02:07.920]Glennis McClure: You know, again, keeping control using some deep breathing relaxing muscles in your, your body, you know, having positive self talk as you're getting prepared for this is something that can be really helpful to
[01:02:21.540]Glennis McClure: All right, so, um, so a few more tips on keeping in mind when dealing with someone under stress, you know, have patience as you talk through options.
[01:02:30.840]Glennis McClure: Decisions and plans with your clients and customers. And remember, most importantly, remember to listen, be an active listening listener show some empathy.
[01:02:41.520]Glennis McClure: You know, kind of put yourself into their situation and try to understand it from there. You may have a grasp of the reality of the situation.
[01:02:48.600]Glennis McClure: Because of stress. They may not see the picture clearly remember that cortisone for dissolve in their brain. They're really stress and they may not really see things as clearly as
[01:02:59.790]Glennis McClure: You would want them to. And that's what causes some issues with this. So again, they don't process where other lot of times they're overloaded be sensitive to help people organize information is in a way that they can remember
[01:03:12.900]Glennis McClure: And process what was discussed in that you know again to remind them if you read some types of sentences with that will be timely follow up is important to in these kind of situations. So like you said your follow up.
[01:03:27.300]Glennis McClure: Do it, even if you said you would not do it. All right, follow up. Okay, so what, in your current role can you do so again don't promise what you cannot individually do and I would really
[01:03:42.300]Glennis McClure: Suggest that you know if you know it's a tough situation and, you know, again, plan ahead but also maybe take the team approach. Don't feel like he's got to do it alone.
[01:03:54.450]Glennis McClure: And again, you don't want to gang up on someone, you know, but you know having people helping you kind of on the back end and can really be helpful to so get your team together.
[01:04:06.360]Glennis McClure: Maybe not all of you go out of course you know individually, you know, making some connections are important, but
[01:04:13.200]Glennis McClure: So I think that's really, that's really good. So anyway, I'm going to turn it over to Susan she'll share more about chronic stress signs to watch for and what you can do if you encounter a friend, family member, a farmer customer that's really under extreme stress.
[01:04:30.720]Susan Harris: Okay. And we had a comment from Donna saying, Can one really understand someone else. I don't understand myself sometimes. That is so true.
[01:04:37.710]Susan Harris: And. And as a reminder to you all. We are not here today trying to teach you to be a counselor. We are not counselors and we don't expect you to be counselors. But what we're trying to do is help you
[01:04:50.880]Susan Harris: Listen and react and provide resources if necessary. So yes, that's absolutely true. We may we may not
[01:05:00.660]Susan Harris: ever understand what's going on in someone else's head, but at least we can we can do what we can do. Right. And then those professionals can do what they can do. So the relationship between chronic stress and suicide.
[01:05:14.130]Susan Harris: Is definitely it's a big one. It's difficult for people to see anything else when they are chronically stressed when they're facing problems.
[01:05:24.660]Susan Harris: That are just overwhelming them and it's been proven that that as humans we can handle a couple of large stressors in our lives and by large stressor. I'm talking like
[01:05:35.460]Susan Harris: Divorce Death in the Family moving having a baby, those, those big things that happened to us. But once you put a third one in there.
[01:05:43.890]Susan Harris: That's when we're more likely to crack. So if you know someone who is experiencing more than two major stressors and maybe you don't even know what their stressors are but
[01:05:54.240]Susan Harris: That could be a reason, because we can only handle so many before it just becomes unbearable. So before we get into this section for someone to talk about language when we refer to suicide, we, we don't want to use the phrase.
[01:06:10.380]Susan Harris: Committed suicide because committed is a negative term associated with committing a crime. So we prefer to say die by suicide or maybe they took their own life.
[01:06:22.530]Susan Harris: And and we never you know you've heard the term successful suicide when someone has taken their own life suicide should never be successful. That's not a term that we would use either
[01:06:37.050]Susan Harris: So some suicide warning signs talking or writing about suicide or death, even in sort of a passive way.
[01:06:47.700]Susan Harris: feeling hopeless trapped or like a burden. That's a big one that I hear often that someone has had mentioned that they had felt like a burden to their family.
[01:06:56.940]Susan Harris: Giving away prized possessions. That's a big one, when suddenly you know grandpa's handing out these things that are his prized possessions.
[01:07:07.380]Susan Harris: That he you know he might be thinking about
[01:07:10.770]Susan Harris: Ending his own life making a plan acquiring means, if, if the person has never for instance owned a gun and suddenly they want to purchase a pistol or for something like that that could definitely
[01:07:27.420]Susan Harris: Make be a red flag for you saying goodbyes, and even maybe saying apologies, making things right, sending out letters sending out cards.
[01:07:39.120]Susan Harris: Having visits with people that are just unexpected and sort of
[01:07:44.490]Susan Harris: Making things. All right.
[01:07:47.280]Susan Harris: Isolation from others that when we can't help right now and it and again it's not helping our stress situation it's making it worse.
[01:07:55.650]Susan Harris: And again, this is another reason to reach out in any way possible phone, text.
[01:08:00.480]Susan Harris: video chats. Oh, you guys. My family does a weekly zoom. It's the best thing ever. We didn't talk this much before coven and now we, you know, it's a set time every week. It might be something to consider with your family or your friends.
[01:08:16.110]Susan Harris: While it's of interest is a big one.
[01:08:18.600]Susan Harris: When you're depressed. You just don't feel like doing the things that you usually you love to do and you may be stopped doing your hobbies you stop hanging out with the people that you like hanging out with. It's a time when you're very introverted.
[01:08:32.430]Susan Harris: And mood change of course that's pretty obvious. If someone has lost their sense of humor, or they just start acting the way that they usually do.
[01:08:41.670]Susan Harris: They might be having some increase drug and alcohol use, that kind of thing mood change can also be if they've been sort of down for a long time and then suddenly one day they're
[01:08:53.520]Susan Harris: happy and everything is great in their world for no apparent reason that that could be a red flag because maybe they have decided that
[01:09:00.990]Susan Harris: Suicide is the answer. And that makes them happy because their problems will be over. If they do that.
[01:09:07.890]Susan Harris: So these are just some suicide warning signs. Typical examples of statements. Some of them can be clear. Some of them can be coded. I'll just let you read those. I'm not going to go through each of them.
[01:09:19.200]Susan Harris: I but these are very real. If you hear statements like these from the farmers and ranchers that you work with, or from family or friends.
[01:09:30.090]Susan Harris: Listen again and I can say that since this training in January of
[01:09:38.970]Susan Harris: Twice. Now I have heard statements like these in conversations with people that I know and twice.
[01:09:46.650]Susan Harris: I have addressed the situation and. And notice here. This one says no warning signs sent. Absolutely. That's possible. If any of you have experienced someone who took their own life and you had
[01:09:57.900]Susan Harris: You look back and you just think I, I feel so guilty. I should have known. But really, there were no signs. Maybe there weren't any signs.
[01:10:05.310]Susan Harris: However, these could be some that you might experience so
[01:10:11.160]Susan Harris: As I said I twice have had those statements in conversations with people and this little sentence is a one, a great one to remember. I would advise you to write it down.
[01:10:25.410]Susan Harris: To memorize it to practice saying it. That sounds ridiculous but it, it helps because when you are in a situation in a conversation with someone who you think might be stressed to the level that they are thinking about suicide.
[01:10:40.710]Susan Harris: It's an important to again not revert back to what we're used to saying, which is, you're not going to commit suicide. Are you, you know, because if that's if that comes out of your mouth is that person have to share with you, probably not.
[01:10:52.560]Susan Harris: This is a very neutral way of asking someone. Are you having thoughts of suicide. If the answer is no.
[01:11:01.470]Susan Harris: It will quite possibly lead into a very thoughtful discussion that could be beneficial to this person. If the answer is yes. Yeah, we will talk about that here in a second. But first, I want you to know that asking does not increase the risk of suicide.
[01:11:20.820]Susan Harris: Even though it's awkward, even though we can't imagine doing it. Sometimes it's pretty easy to do. When you know the right thing to say. And when you have the resources that we're going to give you so
[01:11:32.310]Susan Harris: One example of this that I would like to give you is Kevin Hines, I don't know if you're familiar with Kevin Hines, he goes around speaking about his experience now but when he was 19 he
[01:11:44.460]Susan Harris: jumped off the Golden Gate Bridge and he was exhibiting definite signs that he was ready to take his life, but no one approached him and he had a contract in his head with himself.
[01:11:56.640]Susan Harris: Saying you know if just one person approaches me. I'm not going to do this. I'm not going to jump and there were many people that had chances to do so they didn't do so he jumped in. He actually survived. He's one of very few people who have survived it
[01:12:10.530]Susan Harris: But he has a great story. It's Kevin H. I. N. E. S. If you want to Google that and look up his story. It's a great story and it's just proof that directly asking does not increase the risk of suicide. It only promotes good conversation about it. So what if somebody does say yes.
[01:12:30.540]Susan Harris: Here's the next most important thing to remember from this presentation first that sentence. Are you having or that question. Are you having thoughts of suicide, very important. And secondly, if someone does say yes.
[01:12:41.100]Susan Harris: Don't leave that person alone, don't just have a quick conversation about it and then go your separate ways if they if they are thinking about it and they admit that they're thinking about it. That's a cry for help.
[01:12:52.350]Susan Harris: And this is your, your cue to call for help. And that can be a variety of calls. If you know someone locally of social worker at a hospital, perhaps
[01:13:05.520]Susan Harris: Or someone who works in behavioral health in your community that would probably be the best option.
[01:13:11.610]Susan Harris: A family member could be an option. However, they don't always know the right thing to do. And maybe that's part of the reason
[01:13:19.080]Susan Harris: This person is considering it because they they don't have the right support this support system. So I would highly recommend
[01:13:26.820]Susan Harris: Either using one of the resources that we give you here in a bit or finding one locally and and just not leaving them alone. That's the most important thing you could possibly do so.
[01:13:41.520]Susan Harris: Resources. This is a national one Suicide Prevention Lifeline if it gets to that point.
[01:13:47.340]Susan Harris: This is a 24 seven helpline. That's also a text line which can be very useful for someone who doesn't want to actually speak to someone
[01:13:57.750]Susan Harris: I did test it with a text. If it works, they get right on you. And boy, that person on the other end would not let me go until I proved who I was and why I was texting that it was just testing it out.
[01:14:09.000]Susan Harris: This is an important
[01:14:11.700]Susan Harris: Resource to have. And also, I would recommend this is something we recommend at Nebraska extension to all of our staff members is to put it in your contacts. This one, and for us in Nebraska.
[01:14:23.910]Susan Harris: I'll well I'll get to that one in a minute. We have this one though Nebraska rule response hotline. So let's I'll explain that in a minute. But those two
[01:14:33.390]Susan Harris: It's good to have at the top of your contact list in your phone, maybe with an A in front of it so that it is at the top.
[01:14:39.660]Susan Harris: So that if you are in this situation. All you have to do is pull it up. You don't have to
[01:14:43.350]Susan Harris: Think. Oh my gosh. What was the name of that. How do I Google it and you're trying to calm this person and it can be a very stressful situation.
[01:14:49.650]Susan Harris: So that would be handy to just say, you know, I have this great resource. Would you like to talk to them because again we're not trying to meet you counselors, we are not counselors and we don't expect you to be. But you can be armed with the best resources for these people.
[01:15:07.470]Susan Harris: And yes, someone heard on the news this week that they are changing.
[01:15:11.610]Susan Harris: To a three digit number for easier access like 911 yes I think I have that in the notes which I can't see right now but
[01:15:18.660]Susan Harris: It's not, it's not happening yet, but they are working on that which is very cool. So in Nebraska. If you are from Nebraska.
[01:15:26.760]Susan Harris: We just want to point out this gem of a resource. Not every state has it.
[01:15:32.700]Susan Harris: The last team began in the Lincoln area, but they've since grown all over the state there. As you can see,
[01:15:38.190]Susan Harris: So it stands for local outreach to suicide survivors teams and they are trained professionals who volunteer to bring immediate support to someone, or a family who has lost a loved one to suicide.
[01:15:52.350]Susan Harris: And this includes you know the the use of healthy coping mechanisms and strategies resources just things to keep them on track.
[01:16:03.330]Susan Harris: And they do follow ups to it's a it's a great resource highly recommended. And this is one, this is the reason we we started our mental health.
[01:16:14.160]Susan Harris: Campaign in Nebraska is because we had seen a lot of farmers and ranchers taking their own lives and I was not aware of this resource. And somebody came to me from extension and I
[01:16:24.390]Susan Harris: Was so glad to find this because this is great because it does happen. And when it does happen, at least we have that and they are looking at doing it in other states.
[01:16:32.490]Susan Harris: There are states that are are looking talking to Nebraska and figuring out how to do it there so that could be going, I think.
[01:16:39.420]Glennis McClure: That's a really important resource, because I think again stats tell us that, you know, once a tap and then a family can happen. It's one of those things that can be repeated.
[01:16:52.740]Glennis McClure: And then if you've got counselors to help mitigate those kinds of thoughts and feelings.
[01:16:58.110]Susan Harris: Exactly, yeah. It is a fact that once someone has taken their own life, the person remaining is more apt to do the same. So it helps to have good support behind that.
[01:17:10.380]Susan Harris: So this is our other little jam. I love the Nebraska rural response hotline.
[01:17:15.990]Susan Harris: This is for any Nebraska farmer rancher or rural resident to call
[01:17:23.010]Susan Harris: eight to five Monday through Friday and they have experienced experienced staff people
[01:17:29.610]Susan Harris: Who will respond directly to callers and then discuss the issues referring them to attorneys counselors clergy.
[01:17:39.210]Susan Harris: mediation services, whatever that might mean whatever that person might need it could be relationship issues. It could be absolutely any problem that they have going on in their life. They offer no cost vouchers and
[01:17:54.000]Susan Harris: So I believe it's still five and maybe Carl, I think you're on. You might set me straight. If that's incorrect, but for eligible people, they can get these cost free vouchers to have sessions with professionals that will help them with their problem.
[01:18:11.760]Susan Harris: Also in Nebraska. We have the Nebraska network of care for behavioral health, the regions of the Department of Health and Human Services and they offer a great program. They do this nationwide.
[01:18:24.090]Susan Harris: Called Mental Health First Aid. So maybe in your state, if you have, if you google Mental Health First Aid and see where they are offering that it's an eight hour certification course that teaches you to recognize and respond to
[01:18:38.760]Susan Harris: Situations like we're talking about here. So they also provide all kinds of other resources and they're just they're obviously they're divided into regions, their region one through six. So depending on where you live. That's the region that you would contact
[01:18:54.450]Glennis McClure: Also the QPR training.
[01:18:56.610]Glennis McClure: That's if you want to learn
[01:18:57.780]Glennis McClure: About that, how to run across the real distressed and that that can be really helpful program to to go through. It's only about an hour, hour and a half.
[01:19:07.890]Susan Harris: Program. And that's, that's why I like that one. It's more intense and it's about an hour and a half, and it's
[01:19:13.620]Susan Harris: If you don't have all day to go through the Mental Health First Aid. There's also a Psychological First Aid Training, which is even more in depth. So they offer some great free stuff.
[01:19:22.890]Susan Harris: So this is our website at university, Nebraska, Lincoln extension.
[01:19:28.020]Susan Harris: And it's rural wellness.us l.edu and boy, we have added a lot to that and this past year, we've been working hard on it. We have some great videos and podcasts some articles, all of these
[01:19:39.390]Susan Harris: Documents that we will be linking sending you a link to can be found and the resources on this site as well.
[01:19:48.300]Susan Harris: And this is just these are just an example of a couple of the main things that we have created for extension. This is a flyer staying connected during tough times that lists.
[01:19:57.750]Susan Harris: All of our best resources and then that wallet card. Boy, that has been fabulous. I just ordered another 10,000 I've been going through them like crazy because for farmers and ranchers.
[01:20:09.630]Susan Harris: It's so discreet you know we handed it out at our major ranch show and just said, You know, I just put this in your wallet.
[01:20:16.560]Susan Harris: In case you're struggling sometime you might need to call somebody or if you want. If you have a friend who's struggling
[01:20:22.050]Susan Harris: Now that's the kicker that that will get them to put it in their wallet and we didn't have anybody refuse it
[01:20:27.180]Susan Harris: And I know that calls to the response hotline have been up and I like to think that maybe we can take a little bit of credit for that. I hope people are using it.
[01:20:37.320]Susan Harris: I think the stigma is going down. I know they used to have mostly women calling and Last I heard, maybe someone can correct me. But last I heard it was about 55% men calling in now. So, that's fabulous to hear
[01:20:53.340]Susan Harris: So these are just some more resources.
[01:20:57.180]Susan Harris: Anything you want to say about those banners, we covered most of those
[01:21:01.950]Glennis McClure: And there's a long list of the resources that Michigan State have provided. But again, a lot of this stuff you'll see in the handouts as well. Right.
[01:21:11.160]Susan Harris: So I'll let you take over and review Glynis if you'd like.
[01:21:14.190]Glennis McClure: Okay. Okay, so, um, I just want to mention to you again I will send out an email with the presentation link.
[01:21:23.400]Glennis McClure: The handouts and also an evaluation. So we do have an online evaluation that we'd like for you to do today, just as soon as you can do it.
[01:21:32.190]Glennis McClure: But here's just the sort of the key points that we want to make sure that you take away from today is that, well, there's just extreme economic conditions happening right now. We every year, it seems like we have weather related situations. And there's a lot of other reasons.
[01:21:50.550]Glennis McClure: So a lot of times, you know, farmers have this stress and there's a lack of medical resources, but I think one of the things within this last year and a half.
[01:21:59.070]Glennis McClure: That again as Susan said the stigmas kind of gone away a bit, and there's, I think there's been a real effort in least in the State of Nebraska to provide more
[01:22:10.230]Glennis McClure: Mental health, behavioral health counseling across the state. So that's a plus. So, there should be resources out there to help people connect
[01:22:18.750]Glennis McClure: But chronic stress is a common response to challenging economic conditions.
[01:22:24.150]Glennis McClure: So it's that chronic, the things that keep happening or that are, you know, just we can't get rid of, like, you know, high level of debt, perhaps, and especially when
[01:22:32.880]Glennis McClure: We have this tough situation we have right now with trade and prices and so on, you know, things like that become chronic. So then I talked about that being the good listener and listening empathetically
[01:22:47.040]Glennis McClure: Is really something that is probably one of the best things you can do to help someone that's going that has extreme stress and then
[01:22:54.780]Glennis McClure: Remind them and yourself that you know keep a positive self talk from us good breathing and, you know, kind of
[01:23:05.430]Glennis McClure: Learn to be a little bit more accepting you know those are proven coping skills, but then as Susan said one of the key points.
[01:23:13.950]Glennis McClure: If you sense or understand that someone is so distressed and that they you've you've
[01:23:21.390]Glennis McClure: Concluded that they may be thinking of suicide, don't leave that person alone all, a friend, a family member or even 911 find out who
[01:23:32.040]Glennis McClure: You know that person would trust that you can get ahold of and just don't leave them alone. Maybe you take them actually into medical facility or whatever because just figure out a way to do again not leaving them alone. All right, so
[01:23:48.930]Glennis McClure: Next, is there something else next there.
[01:23:51.630]Susan Harris: Yeah, I'm in control or nine
[01:23:53.580]Glennis McClure: You are
[01:23:57.180]Glennis McClure: So, just ask yourself, would you be be able to deal with a friend or family member participant in
[01:24:02.700]Glennis McClure: And and i think Susan alluded to it. I did to every time I have an opportunity to present this program. Listen to what Susan shares about
[01:24:13.860]Glennis McClure: Us the things that she talked about. I learned and I'm reminded of some things that I can do personally so
[01:24:21.030]Glennis McClure: It's not like a one and done type of thing. And as I mentioned the QPR to training. If you've got that in your region.
[01:24:26.820]Glennis McClure: I would definitely take time and go in and sit through that because more of these things that you can do will help you be better prepared.
[01:24:34.830]Glennis McClure: To deal with the situation that you might encounter. Alright, so I will send that link out there's a goal you and I'll link for the evaluation, but I will send that out. I'm Ryan has it in the chat and
[01:24:49.080]Susan Harris: It would like to emphasize something to if it's okay and
[01:24:52.680]Susan Harris: Yeah, here, here at extension. Boy, it's all about impact. So we want to know how how you will use this or if this has helped you. The evaluation is really helpful.
[01:25:02.400]Susan Harris: But I wanted to read to you a note that I got from someone. And if you would just let us know if you do use any of this information. Some someday. Oh my gosh, please email us and tell us how you use this this email made my day. So this came from.
[01:25:18.360]Susan Harris: Somebody from the Department of Ag after we had done a workshop for them. And he said,
[01:25:22.440]Susan Harris: On a personal note, I know sooner got out of the meeting when I received a phone call from a complainant. I've been working with about the neighbors pesticide damaging her garden.
[01:25:30.270]Susan Harris: She was using sentences like my whole garden is ruined. I give up. And it caused me concern. I said to her, you're using language that's concerning me it sounds as though you're under a great deal of stress.
[01:25:40.800]Susan Harris: To it. She first denied being under stress, and then stated. Her father was not well I could hear the tension in her voice decrease as she realized
[01:25:48.360]Susan Harris: What, what was the real cause of her stress and not the garden, which when I inspected. It was suffering from environmental stress and not pesticide damage.
[01:25:57.780]Susan Harris: Bottom line, I felt good about being able to say what's really going on.
[01:26:02.370]Susan Harris: And very glad it into the workshop by identifying the complainant stress in turn alleviated my stress that's an interesting perspective to, you know, when you help other people maybe your stress level will go down a little bit.
[01:26:17.130]Glennis McClure: Um, I see. There was a question on if we can share those cards. So yes, I'm maybe flip to another screen Susan that has our contact information.
[01:26:27.330]Glennis McClure: Oh yeah, you can email me, I know you don't have my my email and I can make sure that
[01:26:32.430]Glennis McClure: Susan sees that. But yeah, we're not going to have Husker harvest season this year, or the state fair. I mean, there'll be some things going on there. But, um, you know, as far as getting out those cards. If you can use those. Let us know how many you can you can distribute
[01:26:48.780]Susan Harris: All also I recently had them translated into Spanish and I put on the resources there that would be appropriate for for them so
[01:26:59.280]Susan Harris: I have it available in Spanish. I don't have any might have to have some more printed so I couldn't get them to you right away, but we do have plenty of the English versions on hand right now.
[01:27:09.120]Glennis McClure: You said you just ordered though another 10,000 cards or did you okay yeah
[01:27:14.340]Susan Harris: We should have
[01:27:15.900]Glennis McClure: Yep. And we want to know who's going to use those and get those out. So
[01:27:20.610]Glennis McClure: For sure. Let us know if you would like some of those. I was going to say also Susan did a great handout. And when you look at the handouts. There's one called stress less and
[01:27:31.410]Glennis McClure: It's, it's, there's some good tips on you know how to deal with stress and I. It's like he didn't print it two sided
[01:27:38.160]Glennis McClure: And I think it's a great piece that you'd like to leave on a counter
[01:27:42.630]Glennis McClure: Offer people to pick up. They don't have to talk about what they're dealing with and they may know someone in their family that's dealing with it. So if you have those kinds of things available for for them to pick up. I just have
[01:27:53.250]Glennis McClure: Always just really liked that handout that Susan created way back when we started this program.
[01:27:58.740]Susan Harris: You will have plenty of handouts from which to choose, we promise going to send you a load of them. So are there any questions before we exit here. We have about five minutes.
[01:28:10.530]Susan Harris: Oh, I see an order for cards here. I'm going to write that down.
[01:28:14.340]Glennis McClure: In order for cards. Okay. Well, we can just grab that
[01:28:18.750]Yeah.
[01:28:21.150]Glennis McClure: Okay. All right. Anything else anybody has
[01:28:24.570]Susan Harris: Yeah, just feel free to click on the chat box and enter in a question if you'd like.
[01:28:32.100]Glennis McClure: All right, if you want to unmute everybody
[01:28:35.640]Glennis McClure: That'd be great.
[01:28:51.720]Susan Harris: Okay, David, I will get 12
[01:28:53.220]Glennis McClure: And I guess I should say to if you have
[01:28:56.070]Glennis McClure: If you would like for us if there's a group of folks, we can do this program for let us know as well. First, we're not going out in person just yet, but obviously we can do more webinars we really think thank you for all of your attention and being with us today.
[01:29:15.870]Glennis McClure: I don't see anything else in the chat.
[01:29:18.660]Susan Harris: Okay, well I'll hang out until I have to go do my other program and four minutes so
[01:29:23.400]I guess.
[01:29:24.930]Glennis McClure: You have to leave. Go ahead. So thank you. Yeah.
[01:29:27.570]Susan Harris: Thanks, everybody.
[01:29:29.760]Adela Piernicky: Thank you.
[01:29:31.440]Susan Harris: Thank you.

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Communicating with Farmers Under Stress 7/15/20

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