News Item
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November 28th, 2002
The Farm and Rural Stress Line keeps growing (The Manitoba Co-operator, by Harry Siemens)
The phones are ringing off the hook at Manitoba's Farm and Rural Stress Line.
Janet Smith, the organization's co-ordinator, says they're getting about five times as many calls as last year.
"We're finding that our numbers are growing all the time averaging between 60 and 100 calls a month," says Smith.
The outreach and promotion in different communities has increased the awareness and the variety of calls with some repeats, but many new callers.
Financial stress and relationships are the most common starting points in the calls counsellors receive.
"Financial is where it starts. You can see its impacts on different aspects of the caller's life (such as) relationships, addictions and communications within the family," she adds.
Usually it doesn't just stop with a financial concern, but extends to other aspects of their lives once they start talking about it.
Smith says one of the beauties of the stress line is when someone calls, they may not feel very comfortable about calling at the beginning. However, by the end of the call, they're either feeling able to move on, take the next step and do whatever it takes to move on with life. It may be the first of a number of calls because 20 minutes to half an hour is not enough time to solve most problems.
The Manitoba Farm and Rural Stress Line receives its funding through the government of Manitoba departments of Health and Agriculture and Food.
Smith says working closely with these departments provides excellent resources.
"Working closely with these departments makes it easy to refer the calls to ag reps, home economists and community mental health workers and vice versa," she says.
Members of the stress line's advisory committee come from agriculture and health service groups and the Regional Health authorities.
This makes it easier to refer because a large part of the Farm and Rural Stress Line's program is to refer the caller to someone who can help him or her in the community. The counsellor who takes the call makes the decision of what she thinks the caller is looking for or needing.
"We can provide them with referrals to a variety of agencies whether within their region or outside of their region," adds Smith.
The stress line's new web site (http://ruralstress.ca) has a Rural Database, an excellent tool to find the needed resource. A person types in a query and up comes a list of agencies and service organizations that deal with a variety of issues.
During the last while, the stress line has received more calls from the northern region, which includes Burntwood Regional Health Authority. Smith thinks it's because this region doesn't have the same community services as the southern areas.
With the joint funding from the Health and Agriculture departments and a higher level of commitment, means the chances of someone pulling the plug are remote. Something like that happened a number of years ago.
The demand for the service is growing from a variety of different areas whether it's counselling or referral related.
Being in Brandon helps the stress line to take advantage of various ag-related events and telephone and Internet have no boundaries.
Anyone can reach the Farm and Rural Stress Line using the method most convenient to the person seeking help. A counsellor is available from 10 a.m. through 9 p.m. Monday to Saturday at 1-866-367-3276 (or 1-866-FOR-FARM) or email at stress@ruralstress.mb.ca.
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