{"id":26002,"date":"2021-11-03T10:41:21","date_gmt":"2021-11-03T14:41:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/mda\/?p=26002"},"modified":"2021-11-03T10:43:32","modified_gmt":"2021-11-03T14:43:32","slug":"joint-release-mda-university-of-maryland-announce-farm-stress-assistance-program","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/mda\/press-release\/2021\/11\/03\/joint-release-mda-university-of-maryland-announce-farm-stress-assistance-program\/","title":{"rendered":"Joint Release: MDA, University of Maryland Announce Farm Stress Assistance Program"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Program will promote physical, mental health in rural Maryland communities<\/i><\/strong><\/h2>\n

ANNAPOLIS, MD \u2014 <\/b>The Maryland Department of Agriculture (MDA), in partnership with the University of Maryland Extension (Extension or UME), today announced a new statewide Farm Stress Assistance program designed to provide physical and mental health resources to rural communities. The program is funded by a $500,000 grant from the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) National Institute of Food and Agriculture (NIFA).\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cFarming is a stressful line of work, and it is critical that we provide our rural communities with the proper resources to address mental health issues,\u201d said Agriculture Secretary Joe Bartenfelder. \u201cThis new initiative will provide much-needed access to mental health services for farmers, producers and their families. I encourage anyone struggling with stress management or any other mental health issues to contact their local UME office.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

The Farm Stress Assistance program will target farmers, farm families, agriculture service providers, health providers and rural audiences to raise awareness, provide training, establish tools and create resources around the topics associated with physical and mental health.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cOur nation\u2019s farmers are truly the backbone of America, and we must take the necessary steps to improve their standard of living,\u201d says Craig Beyrouty, dean and director of UMD\u2019s College of Agriculture and Natural Resources. \u201cWithout prosperous farms and healthy farm families, we narrow the margin of possibility towards feeding and nourishing a rapidly growing global population. Collectively, we need to protect the vitality of our farms so farmers can continue to utilize research to produce and operate at the highest levels.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

This joint effort between MDA and UME will provide stress management training to rural Marylanders, provide direct counseling to families and outreach through social, educational and partner programs. Additionally, a website and hotline will be created to support farm mental health assistance.<\/span><\/p>\n

USDA NIFA <\/span>announced<\/span><\/a> Maryland\u2019s grant along with 49 other grants funded for nearly $25 million. <\/span>NIFA invests in and advances agricultural research, education, and Extension programs across the nation to make transformative discoveries that solve societal challenges. In FY20, NIFA\u2019s total investment was $1.95 billion.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

For more information on the Farm Stress Assistance Program, please visit UME\u2019s <\/span>website<\/span><\/a>.<\/span><\/p>\n

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Program will promote physical, mental health in rural Maryland communities ANNAPOLIS, MD \u2014 The Maryland Department of Agriculture (MDA), in partnership with the University of Maryland Extension (Extension or UME), today announced a new statewide Farm Stress Assistance program designed to provide physical and mental health resources to rural communities. The program is funded by  Read the Rest…<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":168,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[12],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-26002","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-press-release"],"acf":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/mda\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26002","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/mda\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/mda\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/mda\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/168"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/mda\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=26002"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/mda\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26002\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":26005,"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/mda\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26002\/revisions\/26005"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/mda\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=26002"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/mda\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=26002"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/mda\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=26002"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}