AgrIInstitute Program Aimed at Helping Curb Rural Suicide Risk

The 2nd annual Healing the Heartland, a series presented by Indiana’s AgrIInstitute, will be an online event on September 29th. The focus is suicide prevention and what you should know and how you can help.

On farms and in our rural communities, with the impacts of Covid19 and its economic lockdowns, piling on to steep drops in farm revenues, is suicide an even larger concern”

“Conditions are ripe for folks to have higher levels of stress,” says Beth Archer, AgrIInstitute executive director, “which leads to suicide decisions at times. Our hope is that through the Healing the Heartland program this year we can raise the level of awareness.”

To prevent suicide, people need to be able to identify those who might be at risk and then be able to take the proper follow up steps.

“That’s exactly the hope for this program,” Archer said. “We’re certainly not going to make anyone a certified counselor. There are qualified individuals who provide counseling services who are qualified psychologists and can truly help the individual deal with those situations.”

Archer says if we all can be more knowledgeable and better prepared to support someone in a mental wellness crisis, helping them find needed resources, “then I think as community members, as business leaders, as peers, we can help to prevent suicide from occurring.”

Register online for the online Healing the Heartland here. The session is September 29 from 9:00 am to 11:30 am. Next in this two part story, the featured speakers and the tools they’ll provide attendees.

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