Mental health first aid training for advisory and extension agents working with farmers

Abstract

The purpose of this project is to explore whether training Advisory Extension Agents (AEA) in mental health first aid will reduce their anxiety and increase their confidence to deal with farmers exhibiting signs of mental ill health. The issues of depression and suicide in rural communities are very well-known. One of the biggest problems is that of ensuring that farmers receive support, given their reluctance, and in many cases a lack of awareness of the need for support. Another factor that is a barrier to them gaining support is the lack of appropriately skilled people for them to approach. This project provides people who are in contact with them with the skills to recognise need and the knowledge of where to refer them for appropriate support. It is increasing the knowledge of mental health symptoms and pathways amongst AEA who see farmers regularly and feel powerless to help on mental health issues. The project uses a pretest / post-test design assessing the effects of the existing and well researched course in mental health first aid on a group of AEAs. A control group will also be subjected to the pre and post test for comparison. For ethical reasons the control group will be offered the course after testing.