Link to NIFA Home Page Link to USDA Home Page
Current Research Information System Link to CRIS Home Page

Item No. 1 of 1

ACCESSION NO: 1027387 SUBFILE: CRIS
PROJ NO: OKLW-2021-09283 AGENCY: NIFA OKLW
PROJ TYPE: OTHER GRANTS PROJ STATUS: TERMINATED
CONTRACT/GRANT/AGREEMENT NO: 2021-70035-35733 PROPOSAL NO: 2021-09283
START: 01 SEP 2021 TERM: 31 AUG 2023 FY: 2021
GRANT AMT: $500,000 GRANT YR: 2021
AWARD TOTAL: $500,000
INITIAL AWARD YEAR: 2021

INVESTIGATOR: Cohenour, M.; Woodring, MA, .; Wheeler, DE, .

PERFORMING INSTITUTION:
AGRICULTURE FOOD AND FORESTRY, OKLAHOMA DEPARTMENT OF
2800 N LINCOLN BLVD STE 100
OKLAHOMA CITY, OKLAHOMA 731054201

OKLAHOMA FARMERS AND RANCHERS MENTAL HEALTH INITIATIVE

NON-TECHNICAL SUMMARY: The availability of mental healthcare resources may be limited to farmers and ranchers in rural agricultural communities. This is problematic given this population may be susceptible to extreme stress, anxiety, and depression due to a plethora of economic, environmental, and psychosocial factors. Strain on this population poses a threat the world's food supply in addition to many other agricultural products that include clothing, health products, industrial goods and other products that are essential to life on Earth. The long-term goal of this project is to improve the availability of mental health resources to farmers and ranchers, thus, encouraging help-seeking behaviors among those struggling with mental illness to stabilize this population and ensure sustainability. To address statewide mental health outcomes associated with farmers are ranchers, we aim to pursue the following objectives: 1) examine the prevalence of suicide, addiction, disability, and access to resources among farmers and ranchers across the state of Oklahoma, 2) assess the underlying factors associated with poor mental health as perceived by farmers and community agricultural service professionals to gain insight into the factors that contribute to farmer stress, available resources, and interventions acceptable to this population, and 3) provide targeted and comprehensive resources dedicated to alleviating farm and ranch stress via tele-education, virtual clinic stations, and mental health awareness training. We anticipate the completion of these aims will yield positive, expected outcomes, such as decreasing suicide and addiction rates in addition to increasing the number of visits to behavioral medicine clinics.

OBJECTIVES: The goal of this project is to improve the availability of mental health resources to farmers and ranchers, thus, encouraging help-seeking behaviors among those struggling with mental illness.This goal encompasses the following three objectives:Objective 1: Examine the prevalence of suicide, addiction, disability, and access to resources among farmers and ranchers across the state of Oklahoma. This aim will involve conducting a statewide analysis to identify where mental health concerns and a lack of available resources are most prevalent in Oklahoma. This will be is a descriptive, cross-sectional research design that includes publicly available data. Specifically, the aim is to identify trends and patterns associated with suicide rates among farmers and ranchers at the county level and determine areas or "hotspots" of concern.Objective 2: Assess underlying factors associated with poor mental health as perceived by farmers and community agricultural service professionals to gain insight into the factors that contribute to farmer stress, available resources, and interventions acceptable to this population. We will utilize surveys, focus groups and in-depth interviews to assess perceptions for poor mental health with farmers and other community members associated with agricultural work. We will recruit a geographically diverse sample in collaboration with OSU Extension Services. We will use a mixed method approach to analyze the results. We will use focus groups and in-depth interviews to determine themes associated with farmer/rancher mental health issues. These themes will be used to construct a survey for state-wide distribution. We will collect basic demographic information (age, gender, education, income, etc.), use standardized measures for stress, anxiety, depression. social support, coping strategies, and assess level of agreement with themes identified from the qualitative data.Objective 3: Provide targeted and comprehensive resources dedicated to alleviating farm and ranch stress via direct guidance and follow-up. The aim will include utilizing different platforms including tele-education and consultation via Project ECHO (i.e., community health care outcomes) to remote areas of the state. We will also provide virtual clinic stations with direct linkage to Oklahoma State University Behavioral Medicine Clinics to reduce health disparities among farmers and ranchers. Additionally, mental health awareness training (MHAT) will be conducted in rural counties across Oklahoma. The purpose of MHAT is to: 1) train individuals to recognize signs and symptoms of mental disorders and emotional disturbances, 2) establish linkages with community-based mental health professionals to refer individuals with signs or symptoms of mental illness to appropriate services, and 3) educate individuals on resources that are available in the community. We aim to provide MHAT training to 2-3 extension officers in approximately 55 counties.

APPROACH: Objective 1: Examine the prevalence of suicide, addiction, disability, and access to resources among farmers and ranchers across the state of Oklahoma.General research design: This is a descriptive, cross-sectional research design that will include publicly available data.Procedure: Using the data extracted from publicly available data sources, the data analyst will identify suicide, addiction, disability rates among farmers and ranchers within communities. Graduate students will be used to compile city level data into county data. Separate visual graphics will be created to display the data and identify areas of concern at the state, city, and county level. Researchers will compile recommendations for each area based on factors that are identified. By obtaining such data, appropriate primary, secondary, and tertiary prevention programs can be established and subsequently evaluated.Statistical analysis: Statistical analyses will be conducted in SPSS. Pearson correlation coefficients will be computed to determine if there is a relationship between suicide, addiction, and disability rates among farmers and ranchers at the state and county level. Tests will be conducted using analpha of .05. Scatterplots of the variables will be reviewed to examine the assumption of linearity. The coefficients of determination, i.e., the effect sizes, will be calculated to determine the proportion of the variance in the dependent variable that can be attributed to the independent variable. Correlation coefficients will be examined according to the direction and strength of the relationship between the variables of interest.Objective 2: Assess underlying factors associated with poor mental health as perceived by farmers and community agricultural service professionals to gain insight into the factors that contribute to farmer stress, available resources, and interventions acceptable to this population.General research design: This is a mixed methods study using qualitative data from focus groups and in-depth interviews and quantitative data from a state-wide survey.Procedure: We will recruit participants for focus groups and in-depth interviews through OSU Extension offices. Focus groups and interviews will continue until we reach saturation (i.e., no new themes emerge). The qualitative data will be analyzed, and emergent themes used to construct a survey that will be deployed state-wide. We will collect basic demographic information (age, gender, education, income, etc.), use standardized measures for stress, anxiety, depression. social support, and coping strategies, and assess level of agreement with themes identified from the qualitative data.Statistical analysis: Statistical analyses will be conducted in SPSS 27 and Stata 16.1. We will calculate basic descriptive statistics for demographic variables. We will conduct psychometric analyses to evaluate internal consistency reliability for standardized mental health measures (e.g., depression, anxiety, social support, etc.). We will calculate means and standard deviations for the questions asking level of agreement with themes identified using qualitative methods. We will calculate correlation coefficients to examine the direction and strength of the relationship between the variables of interest. Subsequent regression analyses will be conducted if supported by the descriptive analyses.

PROGRESS: 2021/09 TO 2023/08
Target Audience:For the OSU-CHS portion of this funding, the target audience was any person that interated or intersected with agricultural producers. For the ODAFF portion of this funding, the target was the same for the American Farmers and Ranchers programs supported. The target audience for the trainings supported were beef cattle veterinarians and ODAFF consumer protection employees. Changes/Problems: Nothing Reported What opportunities for training and professional development has the project provided?Professional Development Reducing stress and burnout training for Consumer Protection employees at ODAFF 2 mental health focusedspeakers for Oklahoma beef cattle veterinarian conferences(2022 and 2023) Training AFR Train the trainer events How have the results been disseminated to communities of interest?The Echo channel from the OSU-CHS portion of the grant was a great way to disseminate information learned from the research work. This channel reached medical professionals as well as extension educators and other people that have contact with ag producers. What do you plan to do during the next reporting period to accomplish the goals? Nothing Reported

IMPACT: 2021/09 TO 2023/08
What was accomplished under these goals? In addition to the previously reported achievements though the OSU-CHS portion of the grant, ODAFF focusedon Objective 3. Projects supportingthis objective include: Reducing stress and burnout training for Consumer Protection employees at ODAFF 2 mental health focused speakers for Oklahoma beef cattle veterinarian conferences(2022 and 2023) Support of the only ag focused mental health outreach program in the state - AFR Farm Stress Managment Team Booth space at Tulsa Farm Show, Oklahoma Cattlmen's Association, Enid Agrifest Train the Trainer certifications for AFR staff Mileage for staff to attend conferences for OSU Extension staff, USDA-FSA mental health conference and mulitple promotional interviews with radio and newspapers

PUBLICATIONS (not previously reported): 2021/09 TO 2023/08
No publications reported this period.