Farmscape for August 13, 2018

The Do More Agriculture Foundation reports a pilot project designed to expand access to mental health first aid training is generating a great deal of interest.
The Do More Agriculture Foundation has partnered with Farm Credit Canada in a one year pilot program to expand the availability of mental health first aid training among rural communities.
Kim Keller, a northeastern Saskatchewan farmer and co-founder of the Do More Agriculture Foundation, explains the two day course is offered throughout Canada in many different languages.

Clip-Kim Keller-Do More Agriculture Foundation:
Mental health first aid training is just like physical first aid training.
It doesn't teach you how to be a doctor.
It doesn't teach you how to be a therapist.
What it does is it help you to respond in a crisis situation or recognize signs and symptoms before something might get to a crisis situation so that you're able to maybe approach someone and say, "hey, I've noticed some of these changes in you, do you want to talk about something, is everything OK?"
It sort of gives you that confidence to be able to do that as well as recognize those early signs and symptoms and be able to respond in a crisis situation.
If we were in a big room in a group of people and someone cut their arm we would all know what to do to help that stop bleeding but, if someone in that room had a panic attack, we wouldn't know what to do.
So it really helps you to respond to those situations and it's a two day course.
I'm really excited for when we're able to launch this. at the end of August, beginning of September. that we can actually get these communities in the process of receiving that type of training.
Then we're really feeding rural Canada with people who are able to respond in those types of crisis situations.

Keller says since the partnership with Farm Credit Canada to fund these rural communities receiving mental health first aid training was announced there's has been a lot of interest.
For more information visit domore.ag.
For Farmscape.Ca, I'm Bruce Cochrane.

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