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Estimated 4 minutes<\/p>\n
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WARNING: This story includes details about suicide.\u00a0If you or someone you know is struggling, see the end of this story for where to look for help. <\/p>\n
Josh Lehmann was a cowboy from Rosthern, a tiny town near the confluence of the North and South Saskatchewan rivers, where the open prairie rolls into the northern boreal forest.<\/p>\n
He was a rodeo rider, a good friend, someone who would stop whatever he was doing to help.<\/p>\n
But inside, his sister says, he struggled with his mental health.<\/p>\n
“He was just a cowboy through and through,” Morgan Lehmann said in an interview from her family’s ranch northeast of Saskatoon.<\/p>\n
“We had talked about maybe getting him some help, but he definitely was more cautious and leery of reaching out. He didn’t want to be seen as anything less than tough.”<\/p>\n
Josh took his own life in October 2023. He was 20.<\/p>\n
The Mental Health Commission of Canada says farming and ranching are considered two of the most stressful occupations in the country. It’s a living that tests the hardiest of souls.<\/p>\n
Cynthia Beck, with the SaskAgMatters Mental Health Network, says producers’ livelihoods largely depend on things they can’t control: weather, markets, trade disputes and government policy decisions.<\/p>\n
“When you feel like you have no control over what’s happening in your business, in your personal life, then that causes deteriorations in cognitive functioning,” Beck said.<\/p>\n
Calls increasing<\/p>\n
Merle Massie of the Do More Agriculture Foundation says while the numbers of farmers phoning for help have been greater than anticipated, that’s not always bad news. <\/p>\n
The increase could be due to more people feeling comfortable talking about their mental health, she says, adding attitudes are changing: It’s now OK to seek help instead of toughing it out.<\/p>\n
Farmers have told me “for too many years, we didn’t talk about this and not talking about it has definitely not solved the problem,”‘ Massie said.<\/p>\n
Briana Hagen, CEO of the Canadian Centre for Agricultural Wellbeing (CCAW), says more men need to open up about mental health because women end up shouldering a heavier burden if they don’t.<\/p>\n
Hagen co-authored a recent study from the University of Guelph that found women farmers are at higher risk for mental-health struggles.<\/p>\n
Heavier workloads<\/p>\n
The study, which surveyed 74 farmers in Ontario, says women reported having heavier workloads because they’re juggling farm work with another job or taking care of the family.<\/p>\n
It also found it was on women to find mental-health supports for their families or partners.<\/p>\n
“We need [men] to be able to talk about their feelings, but we also need them to realize that they should be active participants in learning about mental health as well,” Hagen said.<\/p>\n
Help is a phone call away. Various provinces have had stress lines for producers to call about issues they’re dealing with.<\/p>\n
LISTEN | Sask. first responders talk about mental health on the job:<\/p>\n
Blue Sky47:16Sask. first responders talk about mental health impacts and available resources<\/p>\n
Police officers, paramedics, firefighters, and other public safety personnel join Blue Sky to talk about mental health resources available for Saskatchewan’s frontline workers.<\/p>\n
In February 2025, the CCAW launched a national telephone line. Most farmers can call that line but some provinces continue to operate their own.<\/p>\n
For Morgan Lehmann, the years since the death of her brother Josh have been an emotional balancing act. She chooses to remember the positives while not forgetting his struggles.<\/p>\n
She and Josh’s friends have been running an annual fundraising roping event in his honour, with proceeds to the SaskAgMatters Mental Health Network.<\/p>\n
This year’s event is set for next month. She says some participants, known as “pick-up men,” wear a yellow feather in their hat to signify they’re a safe person to talk with about mental health.<\/p>\n
“Rodeo athletes aren’t seen as weak or less-than if they take the help of a pick-up man,” Lehmann said.<\/p>\n
“[The idea is] to either see and take the hand of a pick-up man when you need it, or to be a pick-up man to the people around you.”<\/p>\n
The national farmer crisis line is 1-866-327-6701, and Canada’s suicide crisis helpline can be reached by calling or texting 988. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Listen to this article Estimated 4 minutes The audio version of this article is generated by AI-based technology.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":690877,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[60],"tags":[97,259,260],"class_list":["post-690876","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-mental-health","tag-health","tag-mental-health","tag-mentalhealth"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/690876","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=690876"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/690876\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/690877"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=690876"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=690876"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=690876"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}