May is Mental Health Month
NY FarmNet Offers Trainings to Support Mental Health Awareness + Literacy

Recognizing that May is Mental Health Month, and as part of the USDA Farm and Ranch Stress Assistance Network funding, NY FarmNet is offering two trainings to groups of farmers and agricultural business professionals, or those who provide direct service to farmers and farm employees. NY FarmNet believes in building a common language around mental health and suicide prevention, and these trainings support that work in building literacy. Building mental health and wellness literacy helps remove barriers like stigma, embarrassment, and shame.

Talk Saves Lives: An Introduction to Suicide Prevention
American Foundation for Suicide Prevention standard program

This program provides participants with a clear understanding of this leading cause of death, including the most up-to-date research on suicide prevention, and what people can do in their communities to save lives. Participants will learn common risk factors and warning signs associated with suicide, and how to keep themselves and others safe.

Length of training: 45 minutes – 1 hour
Format of training: Zoom or in person
Max/min # of participants: No max /10
*FarmNet can help advertise to bring in outside attendees if appropriate.

Mental Health First Aid
National Council for Mental Wellbeing standard program

Just as CPR helps you assist an individual having a heart attack, Mental Health First Aid helps you assist someone experiencing a mental health or substance use-related crisis. In the Mental Health First Aid course, you learn risk factors and warning signs for mental health and addiction concerns, strategies for how to help someone in both crisis and non-crisis situations, and where to turn for help.

Length of training: 6 hours in class + 2 hours of pre-work
Format of training: Zoom or in person (preferred)
Max/min # of participants: 30 max/15 min for in person; 30 max/5 min for virtual
*FarmNet can help advertise to bring in outside attendees if appropriate.

If you are interested in hosting Talk Saves Lives or Mental Health First Aid, contact Kate Downes, kdownes@cornell.edu to schedule one. Trainings will be offered through May of 2023, free of charge.

 This work is supported by 7 U.S.C. 5936, Section 7522 of FCEA of 2008, Farm and Ranch Stress Assistance Network (FRSAN), Grant No. 2021-70035-35550, from the U.S. Department of Agriculture, National Institute of Food and Agriculture.

NY FarmNet was founded by the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences at Cornell University in response to the national farm crisis in the 1980s. NY FarmNet still operates at Cornell as part of the Charles H. Dyson School of Applied Economics & Management. The Dyson School is part of both Cornell’s College of Agriculture and Life Sciences and the SC Johnson College of Business. NY FarmNet is funded by the NYS Department of Agriculture & Markets, NYS Office of Mental Health, the private sector, and individual donations. If you are interested in making a donation to NY FarmNet, visit www.nyfarmnet.org and click the banner across the top.