The Landscape of Mental Health and Financial Support for Midwest Farmers
Tuesday, September 30, 2025 • 1:00 pm ET / 12:00 pm CT / 11:00 am MT / 10:00 am PT
The farm income crisis of the late 2010s and the COVID-19 pandemic amplified mental health challenges in agriculture, which resulted in the development of a range of mental health programs. In this webinar, we will present the findings from the first two years of a five-year research project to understand what the landscape of support in the Midwest looks like and how farmers engage with it. Programmatic and policy implications of these findings, along with the project’s next steps, will also be shared.
Presenters:
- Florence Becot, Ph.D., Nationwide Insurance Early Career Professor in Agricultural Safety and Health, Penn State
- Carrie Henning-Smith, Ph.D., Associate Professor, Division of Health Policy & Management and Co-Director, Rural Health Research Center, University of Minnesota
- Andrea Bjornestad, Ph.D., Associate Professor/Extension Specialist-Mental Health, South Dakota State University
- Sarah Ruszkowski, MA, Research Technologist, Penn State
RRDC webinars are open to all participants. If you need a reasonable accommodation to participate or need an interpreter or translator, please contact Mary Breidenbach five days prior to the event.
The Regional Rural Development Centers (RRDCs) are regionally focused centers funded by the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) National Institute of Food and Agriculture (NIFA) to link research with Extension/outreach in the areas of rural economic development, forming a one-stop-shop connection to the nationwide network of Land-Grant college and university researchers, educators, and practitioners.
