Wellbeing on the farms: strengthening resources and skills

The project focuses on the agricultural population, who face various mental health problems due to their particular living and working conditions. These include long working hours, social isolation, insecurity due to weather and market conditions, stigmatisation of mental health problems, limited access to mental health services, etc. The project focuses on improving the mental health of the farming population in Slovenia based on a holistic approach that includes training and capacity building in the field of mental health care and psychosocial risk reduction. The agricultural population is exposed to high level of stress due to particular working and living conditions. The project aims to introduce educational materials and activities that will help farmers to better cope with the stressful working and living conditions on farms and to take better care of their mental health.

The main objectives of the project are:

1) Increase mental health literacy and strengthen the factors that favour good mental health among the farming population.

2) Reduce psychosocial distress and suicide rates in the agricultural population.

3) Develop programmes, content, tools and professional material for psychosocial support and mental health literacy.

4) Implementation of education and training measures and capacity building for the implementation of psychosocial support programmes.

5) Implementation of prevention measures that contribute to reducing the risk behaviour among the agricultural population.

Target groups:

Main target group: Farmers and members of farming families.

Subgroups: Young farmers, farmers, older farmers, migrant farm workers and seasonal workers.

Specific target groups that are also included in our project activities are: Professional organisations in the agricultural sector, providers of health and social services in rural areas.