A recent federal grant is making it possible for those in rural areas to benefit from counseling.

The Iowa Rural Mental Health Initiative provides help to people feeling overwhelmed or depressed due to the lagging farm economy.

“The purpose is to help rural and farm families that are suffering from the effects of the economic situation,” said Ester Mae Cox, Woodbury County extension education director. “If they are feeling depressed or under stress they can see a counselor and get help.”

The program is not limited to farmers and their families, Cox said. It includes those in the rural areas whose livelihoods are also impacted by the agriculture market.

“The rural part is that we may have businesses in the rural economy that are also affected,” Cox said.

“When families leave the community and aren’t using other services, the grocery stores suffer, the convenience stores have fewer sales, the elevator income is not so great. Many businesses in the rural community will feel the effects of the farm economy.”

Trends in the rural economy

David Swenson, assistant agricultural economics scientist, said the structure of the rural economy has been changing since the early 1980s.

“The state of Iowa has been gaining manufacturing jobs for the past ten years,” Swenson said. “Most of those jobs have found their way into rural areas. The downside is that the kinds of jobs that they are have tended to be lower-skilled and lower-paid than had been the case before in Iowa.”

Along with the shift of available jobs in rural areas, the income they provide is not competitive with wages in other parts of the country, Swenson said.

“The other outcome is that the average pay for workers is not keeping up with the state and national average,” he said. “They’re losing ground, paycheck by paycheck.”

A result of this is that more than half of farmers are working outside jobs, and many in rural communities are commuting to their jobs, Swenson said.

“A lot of folks that are farmers are also truck drivers, work in elevators, have factory jobs – often for the benefits and actually getting cash income,” he said. “Whatever opportunity they can find out there, you’re as likely to have farmers applying for the job as anyone else.”

Census figures show that in towns of fewer than 2,500 people, 50 percent of people commute to their jobs, Swenson said. He expects these figures to be even higher with the new census.

Program reaches out to rural population

The Mental Health Initiative is aimed at the people in these areas who feel depressed or overwhelmed because of the economic situation, Cox said.

“What we’re trying to do is remove barriers for people who need the counseling,” said Marilyn Bode, extension families specialist at Iowa State.

The $850,000 grant is from the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, Bode said. Sen. Tom Harkin, D-Iowa, initiated the program.

“Iowans know all too well how damaging tough economic times can be to the physical and mental well-being of farm families,” Harkin said in an e-mail.

Iowa State’s extension received a portion of the grant to increase awareness about the program and educate the community, Bode said.

“We’re promoting the free counseling that is available in this grant,” Bode said. “We do education around mental health and we do education with the mental health care providers so they understand the farm economy. Some counselors don’t have a good background, so we provide education so they will understand their clients’ problems.”

Implementation of the program

The seven extension areas that existed at the time of the grant each have a different focus, Bode said. The focuses include peer counseling and financial counseling.

“There are subcontracts with mental health care providers that are geared up and delivering services to clients,” Cox said. “In our area we really worked hard with our mental health care providers so that there is little to no paperwork for them to be seen for up to five prepaid visits.”

A preliminary report shows that since the program’s initiation in August more than 2,500 people have been reached, Bode said. Business people and farmers have received financial and mental counseling from their area providers.

“I think our goal was something like 700 or 800 people would receive one on one mental health counseling in the first year,” Bode said. “We’ve received word that we will have a second year of funding.”

Families are encouraged to call the Iowa Concern Hotline if they notice loved ones with changed eating or sleeping habits; reclusive, stay-at-home behaviors; violent tendencies toward themselves or others; or a decrease in talking, said Cox.

“People feel like they’re out of options,” Cox said. “We’re really working hard to get them to call the rural mental health care center and visit with someone who is professionally-trained to help them talk through their issues.”