A grant recurring$ 400,000 is granted by Quebec to the body in The heart of farm families. It will allow the deployment of 13 of the workers of a rank in the different regions of Quebec.
Share
July 16, 2020 19h53
Updated at 20: 05
Share
Psychological distress: Quebec announces financial help to farmers
Johanne Fournier
Special Collaboration
A grant recurring$ 400,000 is granted by Quebec to the body in The heart of farm families (ACFA) to help farmers and their families who are prey to psychological distress. This sum will enable the organization to deploy 13 of the workers of a rank in the different regions of Quebec, including those of the Chaudière-Appalaches and Bas-Saint-Laurent. The announcement was made at Rimouski on Thursday by the minister of Agriculture, André Lamontagne.
If special assistance is granted by Quebec to the mental health of farmers, it is because they are facing many different issues that can become very challenging, in the opinion of Mr. Lamontagne, who made the announcement on behalf of the deputy minister of Health and head of mental health, Lionel Carmant. Among these challenges include the weather, financial pressure, isolation, fatigue, lack of vacation and the vagaries of the market. “These are all things that, taken in isolation, can be a source of stress,” says Mr. Lamontagne. The peculiarity, in the agricultural world, it is that all of these points-there may occur with an intensity to some all together, at the same time, for a long period of time. This is where people experience distress.”
Recognition
According to the parliamentarian, the recognition of the phenomenon by the ministry of Health and social Services (DHSS) is already, in itself, a “great victory”. The next step was to provide recurrent funding of$ 400,000 requested by the ACFA. Mr. Lamontagne gives the credit of this commitment to his colleague, Danielle McCann, when she was minister of Health and social Services. “Very sensitized to the farmers ’cause”, she responded to the request of ACFA, “which has existed for a decade, who has developed the concept of a worker of rank, and who has a house of respite”. “This announcement today is a step that is decisive in the establishment, in the territory of Québec, a first line of support, has supported Mr. Lamontagne. On the radar screen of the ministry of Health, there is now a small dot that flickers: the psychological health of our farmers. […] It is a question of empathy and sensitivity.”
For the president of the ACFA, the granting of such financial assistance his organization is a “very significant which brings additional recognition to the work done on the ground by the workers of rank”. “It is reassuring, said Nathalie Roy. The needs are there and finally, they are recognized!”
Psycho-social Services front-line
“This grant recurrent will allow us to devote ourselves fully to our mission: to provide psycho-social services front-line to promote the improvement of the well-being of farm families in Quebec, explained Ms. Roy. It will also allow us to consolidate our provincial network. Workers of rank can thus benefit from an expanded network, structured and organised. They will be able to demonstrate their full complementarity to the services already offered by the health network.”
The worker tier is an innovative approach to prevention and intervention which takes into account the agricultural reality, which enables to join the farmers and their entourage according to their availability and that makes the link, when necessary, with the institutional network. “The strength of the ACFA, is the speed of reaction,” said Ms. Roy. The agricultural producer who takes the time to call do not want to be told that he is going to have an appointment in three weeks, on a Wednesday afternoon, because at that time, it may be that it has the hay to do and that he will not come. It was this ability to adapt to a new environment. There are appointments that are given in the evening because this is where there is availability. It fits the terrain.”
According to it, the needs are enormous. Up to now, with only six workers in a row, the ACFA has 1 accounting 200 meetings of clients and completed about 5 000 operations. With recurrent funding, 13 of the workers of rank play now a little everywhere in Quebec.
“This grant recurrent will allow us to devote ourselves fully to our mission: to provide psycho-social services front-line to promote the improvement of the well-being of farm families in Quebec ”
—
Nathalie Roy, president of the ACFA
Give the following
For Nathalie Roy, who is primarily a farmer, his involvement in the ACFA is a way to give to the next. “At one period of my life, I have encountered personal difficulties. These difficulties then led me to a profound questioning of my role as a farmer, my desire to continue my production, my interest, my passion. By meeting with a worker of rank, I had the feeling of being understood. A lot of people can listen to us, but very few can understand the reality of an agricultural producer. […]”
“The distress, sometimes it’s a challenge that we can face the challenges that nature sends to us, she qualified. It leads to questioning on the quality of life that one has, about the work that we do. We are working very hard and it is not always easy! A worker of rank led me to see the solution differently, to see another way of dealing with it. […].” Today, I am still in agriculture, and I have the privilege, in the coming months, to be able to establish my son. My company is going to continue.”
Gilbert Marquis de la Federation de l’UPA du Bas-Saint-Laurent has described the hiring of two women of rank to its territory of a “very great victory”.
Special Collaboration, Johanne Fournier
Two women of rank in the Bas-Saint-Laurent
The minister Lamontagne said he was particularly pleased to make this announcement to Rimouski because the president of the Federation of the Union des producteurs agricoles (UPA) du Bas-Saint-Laurent, Gilbert Marquis, never failed to return to the charge with him about the needs of psychological assistance to farmers. With this announcement, the Bas-Saint-Laurent will now be able to count on two women of rank.
The president of the UPA regional has welcomed the news of the hiring of two women of rank in its region with a lot of emotion. “Words fail me, dropped Gilbert Marquis, who described the announcement as “very great victory”. The government of Mr. François Legault has understood the message.”
“It’s been seven years that I talk about that and the conclusion is today, he recalled. This is wonderful! During these seven years, I have followed closely the previous governments and a little bit of all of the world. It is an essential need for our producers and our beautiful farm succession. […] This is important because year after year, a lot of things happen to the producers: surplus labour, the revenues of which are not always there, the periods of drought. This is not just an element that makes a producer needs help; it is a set of elements.”
