November 9, 2023 • 27 mins
Explore the heart of rural Georgia in this episode as we discuss the intersection of social work, agriculture and mental well-being with Anna Scheyett, professor in the CAES Department of Agricultural Leadership, Education and Communication (ALEC) and former dean at the University of Georgia's School of Social Work. Anna shares how she is building more robust networks to dismantle mental health stigmas, advocate for farmers' health and mental well-being, and highlight the statewide work being done to promote resilience and build support in the communities that provide our food, fuel and fiber.
Resources:
Suicide Crisis Line: https://988lifeline.org/
Anna's Cultivate profile
Rural Georgia Growing Stronger webpage
Thriving on the Farm blog
SAGE Farm and Rancher Stress Network
Athens News Matters: Anna Scheyett Discusses Growth in Suicides Among Farmers
Live Well, Farm Well. Farm Strong - New Zealand: https://farmstrong.co.nz/
USDA-NIFA: https://www.nifa.usda.gov/
CAES Newswire Farm Stress Stories:
Organizations across Georgia come together to combat farm stress
Rural stress summit to connect Georgia farmers with community resources
Edited by Jordan Powers
Produced by Jordan Powers and Emily Davenport
Music and sound effects by Mason McClintock, an Athens-based singer, songwriter and storyteller who creates innovative soul-pop music that transcends traditional genre boundaries. Hailing from small-town Southeast Georgia, Mason's influences range from the purest pop to the most powerful gospel. Mason is a former Georgia 4-H'er and University of Georgia graduate! Listen to his music on Spotify.
Almanac is an annual publication that provides a window into the work being done at CAES to make the world increasingly healthy, equitable and sustainable. We are pleased to announce that the 2024 edition is now available online. Explore stories of science in service of humanity and the environment.
Get social with us!
Follow CAES on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and LinkedIn and check out UGA Extension on on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and LinkedIn for the latest updates.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Sound Effect (00:00):
[music]
Emily Davenport (00:01):
Welcome to Cultivating Curiosity, where we
get down and dirty with theexperts on all the ways science
and agriculture touch our lives,from what we eat to how we live.
I'm Emily Davenport.
Jordan Powers (00:12):
And I'm Jordan Powers. And we're from the
University of Georgia's Collegeof Agricultural and
Environmental Sciences.
Sound Effect (00:19):
[chime]
Emily Davenport (00:21):
Before we get started, a quick trigger
warning. This episode discussesmental health and suicide. If
you need help, or know someonewho does, call the Suicide and
Crisis Lifeline at 988. Help isavailable 24/7 toll free and
staffed by licensed mentalhealth professionals. Language
assistance is available. We'lladd a link to their website in
(00:41):
the show notes as well.
Sound Effect (00:43):
[chime]
Jordan Powers (00:45):
We are here today with Anna Scheyett, former Dean
of the UGA School of Social Workand professor in the CAES
Department of AgriculturalLeadership, Education and
Communication. Anna, thank youso much for joining us today.
Anna Scheyett (00:57):
Thanks for inviting me.
Jordan Powers (00:59):
To kick us off, can you tell us a little bit
about your background? How didyou first get started with
social work? And what broughtyou to UGA?
Anna Scheyett (01:06):
Sure, I actually came to social work from the
health field. And so much what Isaw in women's health had to do
with the issues that weren'treally health. They were all the
social determinants and all ofthe psychosocial aspects. And
that really got me into socialwork. And then from there, you
know, like a lot of academics,over time, I sort of drifted
(01:28):
into administration, and becamethe associate dean at Chapel
Hill School of Social Work, andthen the dean in South Carolina.
And then I came to Georgiabecause this job opened up and
it was really exciting to be atthe University of Georgia.
Emily Davenport (01:42):
As a social worker, what do you bring to UGA
Cooperative Extension with yourwork?
Anna Scheyett (01:47):
That's a really good question. And I've been
sort of stunned at how syntonicsocial work and extension are.
We're both very community-based,partnering with communities,
pragmatic professions that wantto do, not simply do the
research. But I think the thingsthat I bring that are a little
(02:08):
different is, my background isas a psychiatric social worker.
So I have that behavioral healthbackground and the knowledge
base and the knowledge of themental health systems that
Extension folk might notnecessarily have. Social work
also comes from a really strongadvocacy base, and I think
that's a piece that I bringalso, to think about how you
(02:30):
work with the community toadvocate together for the
changes that need to happen. Theother pieces that I can think of
that are really helpful, insocial work, we come from a very
strong systems perspective. Sowe always think about social
ecological theory, which is useda lot in public health and in
extension, but also aboutnetworks and systems and
(02:51):
complexity. And I think whenyou're thinking about the entire
state, and the big problems,that Extension helps communities
tackle, being able to think froma systems perspective is really
helpful. And then the last thingthat selfishly was probably more
helpful for me than it was toExtension was, in social work,
we have really strong trainingin cultural responsiveness and
(03:14):
cultural humility. So when Istarted doing rural work,
because I'm a suburban kid, Idid not grow up in a rural area,
I came at it intentionally veryhumble. And I kept my mouth shut
a lot. And I listened a lot, andwas really fortunate in that
wonderful people like LauraPerry Johnson, and Mark McCann
and Andrea Scarrow, kind of tookme under their wing. And so I
(03:39):
refer to them as my culturalguides. They're the people who
gave me credibility so that Icould walk into a community, a
group, Extension agents'gathering, and be known as
somebody who could be trusted.
And I think that really comesfrom coming in, not at all from
an expert perspective, but froma listener and a learner
perspective. And that'ssomething that you learn a lot
(03:59):
about in social work.
Emily Davenport (04:01):
That's fascinating and so important, as
we know, with so many of thecommunities, especially the
rural communities in Georgia,there can be that contention
there of coming in, maybe assomeone who has a lot of
knowledge, but not somebody whocan be trusted. So it's really
wonderful to hear you speak onhow you bridge that gap.
Anna Scheyett (04:16):
Yeah, the joke is sort of never say, Hi, I'm from
Athens, and I'm here to help.
Everyone (04:20):
[laughter]
Jordan Powers (04:22):
You touched on outreach and community
throughout what you were justsharing, but can you tell us or
elaborate a little bit more onhow this work ties into UGA's
outreach mission?
Anna Scheyett (04:32):
UGA's outreach mission in extension, what's the
phrase? That Extensiontranslates the science of
everyday life to benefit thehealth and prosperity of Georgia
or something. I'm paraphrasingalong those lines. As a social
worker, that's absolutely ourgoal, being able to take the
multidisciplinary knowledge fromthe team around stress and
(04:56):
behavioral health and well beingand health and bring that to the
community in a way that'saccessible to the community and
acceptable to the community hasbeen really important and really
helpful. And I'll give you anexample of this. It's an
initiative that we're doing thatwe call the Farm Stress
Production meetings. JenniferDunn is the person who does
(05:19):
these trainings, and I've beendoing the evaluation. But one of
the things we've learned fromtalking in rural communities,
particularly in farmingcommunities, is that farmers
have no time whatsoever, andfarmers are very, very
independent, self sufficient,I'm not going to ask for help,
I'm going to figure this all outmyself. So if you're going to
provide farmers with informationaround stress management, and
(05:42):
ways to be healthier, so theycan continue farming, you can't
have a program on farmers andmental health and expect people
to show up, they don't have thetime and nobody's going to walk
into something called mentalhealth. So instead, what we've
done is at the productionmeetings that Extension does, so
you know, January, February,there's a cotton production
(06:03):
meeting and the cottonagronomists come and all the
cotton farmers come and listen,and there's a meal and you've
got sort of a captive audienceof 30 to 50 farmers. The first
10 minutes, Jennifer goes in anddoes a really simple
conversation about stress.
What's stressing you all outthese days? What is stress,
what's good stress, what's badstress? How do you cope with
stress? That one's reallyinteresting, because we hear a
(06:25):
lot about tequila and prayer,which is sort of an interesting
continuum. And then, what aregood ways to manage stress? What
are not-so-good ways? 10 minuteconversation, very relaxed. And
then we have a packet ofinformation that gets put in the
stack along with all the cottoninformation or whatever that
they're going to get. So we'renot wasting their time, we're
(06:45):
coming to them as a farmingcommunity and we're talking
about stress, and we're usinglanguage that's acceptable. And
I think that idea of in thecommunity trying to be both
evidence-based, but accessibleand acceptable in how you
collaborate is really important.
(07:06):
And it's, I think, been a bigpart of why we've been able to
have some success with thiswork.
Emily Davenport (07:11):
Accessibility is frequently used as kind of a
buzzword these days, but it's soimportant.
Jordan Powers (07:16):
It's so important.
Anna Scheyett (07:17):
And it means so many different things to
different people. We've donesome work also with farm wives,
and one of the things they talkabout is thinking about what are
messages that you can give tofarmers that will be in places
they already are. Like, what'sthe restaurant in town where all
the farmers sit together forlunch? And you can have your
posters and your flyers there?
Or what could be something thatcould be read briefly while
(07:40):
they're sitting at a tractor orput in a calendar that they've
got on their desk? How do youmake it where they are as
opposed to make them have tocome to us for this information
when they just don't have aminute they're working sunup to
sundown.
Emily Davenport (07:55):
I like that, meet them where they're at.
Anna Scheyett (07:57):
Exactly.
Smart.
Sound Effect (07:58):
[chime]
Jordan Powers (08:01):
One of the ways Anna is meeting farmers where
they are is through her blog,Thriving on the Farm. We'll let
her tell you about it.
Anna Scheyett (08:08):
Quick plug for the blog?
Jordan Powers (08:09):
Please do.
Emily Davenport (08:10):
Absolutely.
Jordan Powers (08:11):
We love your blog.
And we will link that in ourshow notes.
Anna Scheyett (08:19):
Thank you, I appreciate that.
Oh, thank you. One of the thingsthat, again, as I was
mentioning, farmers don't haveany time, People have talked to
me, the wives particularly,you've got to have snippets kept
being the word that they wereusing. That you've got to have
things that people can do orread in five to 10 minutes,
because you don't get more timethan that. So the whole point of
this blog that I created,Thriving on the Farm, it's
something for someone to thinkabout that has to do with stress
and self care, though I wouldnever use that word, that you
(08:39):
could read in five to 10minutes. And in fact, you can
click the little button and itwill read it to you, or it's
something you can do in yourdaily life in five minutes a
day, it doesn't take any time tomake sure you drink enough
water, it doesn't take fiveminutes to stretch four times a
day, those kinds of things. Sopragmatic tips, and then just
things to think about, but thattake very little time. So
(09:02):
site.extension.uga.edu/thriving.
Jordan Powers (09:07):
I know I subscribe and I love getting it
in my inbox every week. So thatmakes, and other stuff that
makes it even easier. I don'thave to go look for it. It just
pops up in my inbox. And it'sright there.
Anna Scheyett (09:21):
Exactly. And I've made some really nice
connections through it. There'sone of the agronomy specialists,
Camp Hand, who just rocks. Ilove that man. He's amazing. And
I was talking to him aboutsomething else and he's like, I
really love what you're doing.
This is really important. I'mlike, you're really invested.
And he said, Yeah, it's becauseI had my own personal
experience. And he told me astory and I said, would you be
willing to go public? He said,absolutely. Oh, yeah. You know,
(09:44):
so his story's on the blog. Igot an email out of the blue
from a woman in Emmanuel Countywho's a therapist whose
husband's a farmer.
Jordan Powers (09:56):
Wow.
Anna Scheyett (09:56):
And so she's been promoting and sharing the
materials that we've got. Soit's been a nice way to start to
connect with some people, bothin Georgia and in other states
as well. And other countrie.
Australia is doing some reallycool stuff. And New Zealand,
like at some point, when youhave five minutes, Google Farm
Strong, it's a website. And I'veactually taken clips from it and
(10:17):
put it on the blog because theyhave farmers talking about their
mental health. And it's really,it's really amazing.
Emily Davenport (10:25):
That's really cool.
Anna Scheyett (10:26):
So there's some cool stuff going on all over the
world.
Jordan Powers (10:29):
Incredible.
Emily Davenport (10:29):
We can add a link to that in our show notes,
too.
Jordan Powers (10:32):
Absolutely.
Sound Effect (10:33):
[chime]
Emily Davenport (10:34):
National Rural Health Day is held on the third
Thursday of November, and thisyear, it's on November 16. Can
you tell us more about this dayand how our listeners can
celebrate the power of rural?
Anna Scheyett (10:46):
This is something that's been organized by the
National Association of StateOffices of Rural Health and
their partners to celebraterural. I think one of the first
things that people can do withthis is learn more. People don't
understand, and I know thatbecause I was one of them until
five years ago, when I startedto do this work, people don't
(11:07):
understand. Rural communitiesmake up almost 20% of the
population of this country,depending on how you count it,
and about 85% of the land. Soit's a big piece, it's not a
little niche interest. And theseare the people that feed us and
clothe us, you know, food andfiber. If you eat food, or you
use fiber, then you should caredeeply about rural communities
(11:30):
because of the agriculturalpiece, and then everything that
supports that. From everythingI've seen this year with
celebrating the power of rural,it's about understanding rural,
and it's about looking at itfrom a strengths not a deficit
perspective. There's all sortsof health disparities and
challenges in rural communities.
Rural communities are poor, theytend to have higher substance
use rates, they tend to havehigher mental health and stress
(11:51):
challenges and all sorts ofthings, but they're also
amazingly strong and resilientcommunities. And I think that's
what this day is about, iscelebrate the fact that these
communities sustain us all. Theyfeed the world. And they solve
problems in ways that areinnovative and creative, because
they have to, because they'reoften very resource-poor. But
those are great things we canall learn from. The formal and
(12:14):
informal network collaborationsthat happen in rural communities
around how you take care of kidsand address the risk of
substance use with children.
Communities have done reallyinnovative things with that, and
we need to look at that, we needto appreciate that, and we need
more health providers to go workin those areas. That's a huge
(12:36):
issue. 70% of the areas in thiscountry that don't have enough
health care providers are rural.
Jordan Powers (12:43):
Wow.
Anna Scheyett (12:43):
Healthcare providers, dentists, and mental
health providers, all of them.
So there's a lot of need, andit's a great place to work. I
love going to, you know, SouthGeorgia is where I do most of my
work. And I love going to Tiftonand to Moultrie and being out in
the community. And it's awonderful place to work. And I
think appreciating that insteadof looking at morality from a
deficit perspective is reallywhat we celebrate when you
(13:06):
celebrate Rural Health Day.
Sound Effect (13:09):
[chime]
Emily Davenport (13:11):
Each year, the National Organization of State
Offices of Rural Health and itspartners set aside the third
Thursday of November tocelebrate National Rural Health
Day. We'll include some linksfor you in the show notes.
Sound Effect (13:22):
[chime]
Anna Scheyett (13:24):
One of the things, I want to go back for a
second to that whole "suburbankid" thing, because that's
always been my identity. Butthen when I was pushed a little,
it was like, don't you have someconnections? It would really
make a difference if you hadsome connection. Andrea Scarrow
taught me that and I startedthinking, and my mother's
father, my mother's from PuertoRico. My mother's father had a
(13:46):
coffee farm. So I do have aconnection, but it wasn't the
stereotypical red barn kind offarm, so it just never came to
mind and it's never been part ofmy identity. But my grandfather
was passionate about his land.
And my husband's family were allpeanut farmers in South Alabama
for many generations. So I dohave connections and we all have
(14:07):
connections. You just have tothink about them.
Jordan Powers (14:11):
Absolutely.
Another exciting initiative, animpactful initiative through
CAES and UGA Extension is theRural Georgia, Growing Stronger
initiative. Can you tell usabout how this cross-college
collaboration is helping ruralGeorgians?
Anna Scheyett (14:27):
Absolutely.
That's sort of the hub where ourwork comes from. And it is both
multidisciplinary andtransdisciplinary in that we
really blend and work togetheracross the College of
Agriculture, Family and ConsumerSciences, Public Health, Social
Work, Pharmacy, people in Artsand Sciences also. So it's
(14:49):
bringing together andintegrating knowledge from a lot
of different perspectives, likeI was talking about what social
work brings to the table before.
But it's also looking veryholistically at Georgia. So
health, behavioral health, wellbeing and success of children. I
mean, the projects that peopleare doing who are involved in
(15:10):
Rural Georgia, Going Stronger,because it's sort of this
collaborative, and then we eachhave our own initiatives. And we
come together and we shareinformation and have ideas
together, but we've got our ownprojects that we're all doing.
But they're about health andobesity. They're about marital
relationships or couplerelationships. We have people
who are working on opioids inrural areas, and how can
(15:32):
communities build their owncapacity there? We have people
who are working on vaccineeducation and that aspect of
health and health education. Oneof the big challenges in rural
areas, if you do behavioralhealth work a lot, is just the
stigma of mental health. So wehave colleagues who are working
on that in addition to workingvery specifically on farmer and
(15:53):
rancher stress. So you pull allof this together, and it becomes
this whole is greater than thesum of the parts. And what we're
working to build, really, is tobe a resource team. In the same
way that there's, in Extension,there's a cotton team, there's a
soil team, Dr. Perry Johnson'sgotten a behavioral health team
(16:14):
within Rural Georgia, GrowingStronger, and we want to be a
resource both to Extension andthe university and the state.
Jordan Powers (16:21):
A hub is the perfect way to put it because
when I first saw the website,which we will link to in the
show notes for our listeners, itis. It's so much information in
so many areas of expertise. Andit's just, I'm biased, but a
brilliant resource for us tohave. So we will be sure to link
that in the show notes for ourlisteners.
Anna Scheyett (16:38):
Great, thank you.
Emily Davenport (16:39):
Definitely.
Anna Scheyett (16:39):
And you just used the word hub, which reminded me
of something which I think isreally important that we've been
working on. Dr. Virginia Brownand Maria Bowie have led some of
this conversation, along withDiane Bales from FACS, thinking
about Extension as a hub, ingeneral. We have actually
written a couple of papers onthinking of local extension as a
(17:00):
potential behavioral health hubin the community. It can be a
place where you can go forinformation about behavioral
health It could be a place wherethere was a telehealth kiosk,
maybe. It can be a place wherepeer support groups could
happen, where educationalopportunities could happen. And
the thing that's lovely aboutusing a local Extension office,
(17:22):
is that in the community,Extension's trusted. Extension
agents live in thosecommunities. They're part of the
community, they are a trustedcommunity member. And we did a
poster session, the title wasTrusted Spaces in Rural Places.
And it was about using Extensionas that hub. And there's no
stigma going to Extension. I'veheard people say I'm not parking
(17:44):
my truck in front of the mentalhealth center, everybody will
see it. Everyone goes toExtension, you could be going to
get your soil tested or droppingyour kid off at 4-H or whatever.
And you can go in and you canget information and resources
and get referred to the helpthat you need. So Extension,
just like Rural Georgia, GrowingStronger, can kind of be the hub
at the university for thisinformation. Each local
(18:05):
Extension office, if we providethem with the resources and the
information, can be a local hubin the same kind of way.
Jordan Powers (18:12):
That's quite a network.
Emily Davenport (18:14):
Yeah. I love that, thinking about it like a
hub to get your one stop shopfor all that you need.
Anna Scheyett (18:19):
Exactly. That's exactly it.
Jordan Powers (18:21):
That's great.
Emily Davenport (18:21):
We've talked a lot about how rural is maybe
associated with farmers andfarming, but that rural goes
much further than farmers. Canyou tell us more about the scope
of these programs and how theyimpact all rural Georgians?
Anna Scheyett (18:35):
That goes back to what I was saying before about
all the different projects thatthe people who are involved on
this, with us are doing. And itreally has to do with thinking
about the well being of peoplein rural areas, irrespective of
whether or not they're doingagriculture, because everyone in
a rural area has challenges ingetting to health care. So all
(18:57):
our work around health educationand health access fits with
that. We know that people inrural areas are at higher risk
of substance use. So the opioidwork that we've been doing,
dealing with the stigma, whichis really kind of a cultural
issue, though it's not justrural. So I think we're coming
at it with the exception of thefarmer stress, which is sort of
(19:18):
the the lane that I do most ofmy work in, which is much more
targeted at agriculture, it'sreally much broader about the
well being of rural communities.
And the flip side of it, too, isthat not all agriculture happens
in rural areas, and urbanagriculture can be very
stressful. It was interesting, acolleague of ours at Mercer
University, they did a survey offarmers, and they were asking
(19:40):
questions about stress andhealth and mental health and
concerns and all sorts ofthings. And it was a great
report and they had well over1000 responses. But the thing
that stuck with me is one of thequestions had to do with how
often do you think aboutsuicide? And when you broke it
out when they looked at thefirst generation farmers, which
(20:02):
is more likely what an urbanfarmer's gonna be, not only but
more likely, when you looked atthe first generation farmers, 9%
said they thought about suicidedaily.
Jordan Powers (20:16):
Wow.
Anna Scheyett (20:17):
So it's not just rural, we've got a lot of work
to do. It's sort of overlap.
Rural has its risks and stress,and agriculture has its risks
and stresses.
Emily Davenport (20:27):
Rural or urban, the COVID-19 pandemic impacted
everyone in some way. How didthe pandemic impact or change
the trajectory of your work? Andwhere do we go from here?
Anna Scheyett (20:37):
Oh, that's a simple question.
Jordan Powers (20:39):
Right? We threw a big one in there.
Anna Scheyett (20:42):
Yeah, a real "where do we go from here?"
That's like a whole section inthe paper that you write. COVID
did a number of things in termsof how I think about my work.
One is it brought to theforefront the importance of high
speed internet, and what anissue that is in rural
communities. In a lot of thefocus groups that were held
around opioids, the conversationshifted to the impact of COVID.
(21:06):
And how hard it had been for thechildren because they couldn't
go to school. And noteverybody's got internet. So
kids weren't able to participatevirtually. Some Extension
offices were opening up theirsite, so kids could do their
homework there because they didhave broadband, but the lack of
broadband and the lack ofawareness of the lack of
broadband has really becomesomething that I'm much more
(21:29):
aware of. And part of that'sbecause during COVID, we started
hearing more and more abouttelehealth, well, people can't
get to their appointments. Well,telehealth is the answer. It's
only the answer if you've gotthe internet. Telehealth is not
the way to fix the accessibilityproblem. I think COVID really
highlighted that. The otherthing that I think COVID
highlighted, for me, at least inthe work as I think about it, is
(21:51):
just the importance of networks,not internet networks, people
networks, and that one of thebig challenges with COVID was
the isolation, the people whohad lost their networks, and the
creative ways to try to pullthat together again is really
important, peer support, hugely,hugely important. And something
I've been thinking more and moreabout, one of the things that we
(22:13):
learned that COVID did when youthink about behavioral health
services in a rural community,in rural communities, they have
what I like to think of as justa de facto system. There's some
mental health providersomewhere, but the schools do
some of it. And juvenile justicedoes some of it, and 4-H does
some of it. And there's thisnetwork of agencies that are
called behavioral health, buttogether they create the network
(22:38):
that catches children. It'stheir safety net. And with
COVID, that gets shattered in alot of places. Because it was
built on personal relationships.
It was built on the 4-H personbeing able to go to the school.
In one of the focus groups,people were talking about how
when people didn't have eyes onchildren, how difficult that was
for Child Protective Services,it just kind of broke a very
(22:58):
tenuous system. So rebuildingnetworks and the importance of
networks is a place to moveforward. And you know, that's
not the answer to "where do wego from here?" but that's one of
the places I think we need tobuild more strength and more
intentionality in.
Jordan Powers (23:15):
It's a path forward to where we're going.
Anna Scheyett (23:17):
Yes, it's one of the steps.
Jordan Powers (23:19):
It is a step. And sometimes that's where we have
to start is a step closer.
Anna Scheyett (23:24):
That's right.
Jordan Powers (23:25):
When we're speaking of communities, rural
and urban, we do know thatGeorgia has a growing community
and population of Spanishspeakers, especially in the
rural communities where the H2Aprogram is highly utilized. Are
there efforts underway to servethe growing Spanish speaking
population?
Anna Scheyett (23:42):
Yes, and that is something where the Vaccine
Education has been particularlypowerful. There's been three
waves of efforts around vaccineeducation through some NIFA
grants, an Extension Foundation,and in the first two, because
the third ones just starting.
But in the first two, there werevery specific efforts. There
were focus groups in the migrantcommunities, in the H2A worker
(24:04):
communities. There was educationgoing out, there were people
partnering with local publichealth and bringing the vaccines
out to people, all the materialswere translated into Spanish. So
we're really aware of that andwe're trying to build more
capacity in that area. That'ssomething that we're very aware
of, and very much wanting tocontinue to involve the Latinx
community with.
Emily Davenport (24:28):
Glad to hear that.
Sound Effect (24:29):
[chime]
Jordan Powers (24:31):
NIFA is the National Institute of Food and
Agriculture, part of the UnitedStates Department of
Agriculture. NIFA providesleadership and funding for
programs that advanceagriculture related sciences.
We'll add a link in the shownotes.
Sound Effect (24:45):
[chime]
Jordan Powers (24:47):
What have we missed?
Anna Scheyett (24:48):
The piece that I would want anybody who's
listening to this to think aboutreally have to do with the myths
and the realities of rural life,and we've touched on that a
little bit, but how important itis for people who know and
understand rural communities, tonot just work with the rural
communities, but to educatepeople who don't know about it,
(25:09):
because most of them arepolicymakers. I mean, there are
really not that many people whoare writing laws, who are
passing policies, who areintimately familiar with the
reality of rural life. If youthink about it, rural
communities live underpredominantly urban laws. And I
read a fascinating article thatI can't remember the author's
(25:31):
name, but he talked about ruralareas as being areas of
extraction. It's the place wherewe take things, like food and
coal, for the benefit of sort ofeverybody but predominantly
urban areas. And we dump a lotof waste back. And we don't give
back. What's the number, 14cents out of every dollar that's
(25:51):
spent on food actually makes itsway back to a farmer? It's some
number like that. So for peoplewho understand and know, I think
we have a responsibility toeducate the rest of the world.
Now I'm on a personal mission toget every social worker to
understand that social work hasbeen built with an urban bias.
We came out of tenement housesand urban areas, and that rural
(26:12):
social work is not a boutiquetopic. It's something we all
need to be caring about andtalking about. So I hope that
everybody does that, all thepeople who know about rural
communities, work to educateothers and people who don't work
to educate themselves.
Jordan Powers (26:27):
We have laughed, we have talked about some very
deep topics, we really covered.
Anna Scheyett (26:34):
We've done it!
Jordan Powers (26:36):
We covered the continuum of emotion, but all
for such an essential andimportant topic that we do need
to be talking about more, andwe're very grateful for the work
that you're doing to that end,and for your time today to come
and join us on the show. SoAnna, thank you so much for
joining us this afternoon.
Anna Scheyett (26:54):
Well, thank you for your interest, and really
thank you for continuing toexpand this conversation that we
all need to be having.
Appreciate you greatly.
Sound Effect (27:02):
[music]
Emily Davenport (27:04):
Thanks for listening to Cultivating
Curiosity, a podcast produced bythe UGA College of Agricultural
and Environmental Sciences. Aspecial thanks to Mason
McClintock for our music andsound effects. Find more
episodes wherever you get yourpodcasts.
[music]
Emily Davenport (00:01):
Welcome to Cultivating Curiosity, where we
get down and dirty with theexperts on all the ways science
and agriculture touch our lives,from what we eat to how we live.
I'm Emily Davenport.
Jordan Powers (00:12):
And I'm Jordan Powers. And we're from the
University of Georgia's Collegeof Agricultural and
Environmental Sciences.
Sound Effect (00:19):
[chime]
Emily Davenport (00:21):
Before we get started, a quick trigger
warning. This episode discussesmental health and suicide. If
you need help, or know someonewho does, call the Suicide and
Crisis Lifeline at 988. Help isavailable 24/7 toll free and
staffed by licensed mentalhealth professionals. Language
assistance is available. We'lladd a link to their website in
(00:41):
the show notes as well.
Sound Effect (00:43):
[chime]
Jordan Powers (00:45):
We are here today with Anna Scheyett, former Dean
of the UGA School of Social Workand professor in the CAES
Department of AgriculturalLeadership, Education and
Communication. Anna, thank youso much for joining us today.
Anna Scheyett (00:57):
Thanks for inviting me.
Jordan Powers (00:59):
To kick us off, can you tell us a little bit
about your background? How didyou first get started with
social work? And what broughtyou to UGA?
Anna Scheyett (01:06):
Sure, I actually came to social work from the
health field. And so much what Isaw in women's health had to do
with the issues that weren'treally health. They were all the
social determinants and all ofthe psychosocial aspects. And
that really got me into socialwork. And then from there, you
know, like a lot of academics,over time, I sort of drifted
(01:28):
into administration, and becamethe associate dean at Chapel
Hill School of Social Work, andthen the dean in South Carolina.
And then I came to Georgiabecause this job opened up and
it was really exciting to be atthe University of Georgia.
Emily Davenport (01:42):
As a social worker, what do you bring to UGA
Cooperative Extension with yourwork?
Anna Scheyett (01:47):
That's a really good question. And I've been
sort of stunned at how syntonicsocial work and extension are.
We're both very community-based,partnering with communities,
pragmatic professions that wantto do, not simply do the
research. But I think the thingsthat I bring that are a little
(02:08):
different is, my background isas a psychiatric social worker.
So I have that behavioral healthbackground and the knowledge
base and the knowledge of themental health systems that
Extension folk might notnecessarily have. Social work
also comes from a really strongadvocacy base, and I think
that's a piece that I bringalso, to think about how you
(02:30):
work with the community toadvocate together for the
changes that need to happen. Theother pieces that I can think of
that are really helpful, insocial work, we come from a very
strong systems perspective. Sowe always think about social
ecological theory, which is useda lot in public health and in
extension, but also aboutnetworks and systems and
(02:51):
complexity. And I think whenyou're thinking about the entire
state, and the big problems,that Extension helps communities
tackle, being able to think froma systems perspective is really
helpful. And then the last thingthat selfishly was probably more
helpful for me than it was toExtension was, in social work,
we have really strong trainingin cultural responsiveness and
(03:14):
cultural humility. So when Istarted doing rural work,
because I'm a suburban kid, Idid not grow up in a rural area,
I came at it intentionally veryhumble. And I kept my mouth shut
a lot. And I listened a lot, andwas really fortunate in that
wonderful people like LauraPerry Johnson, and Mark McCann
and Andrea Scarrow, kind of tookme under their wing. And so I
(03:39):
refer to them as my culturalguides. They're the people who
gave me credibility so that Icould walk into a community, a
group, Extension agents'gathering, and be known as
somebody who could be trusted.
And I think that really comesfrom coming in, not at all from
an expert perspective, but froma listener and a learner
perspective. And that'ssomething that you learn a lot
(03:59):
about in social work.
Emily Davenport (04:01):
That's fascinating and so important, as
we know, with so many of thecommunities, especially the
rural communities in Georgia,there can be that contention
there of coming in, maybe assomeone who has a lot of
knowledge, but not somebody whocan be trusted. So it's really
wonderful to hear you speak onhow you bridge that gap.
Anna Scheyett (04:16):
Yeah, the joke is sort of never say, Hi, I'm from
Athens, and I'm here to help.
Everyone (04:20):
[laughter]
Jordan Powers (04:22):
You touched on outreach and community
throughout what you were justsharing, but can you tell us or
elaborate a little bit more onhow this work ties into UGA's
outreach mission?
Anna Scheyett (04:32):
UGA's outreach mission in extension, what's the
phrase? That Extensiontranslates the science of
everyday life to benefit thehealth and prosperity of Georgia
or something. I'm paraphrasingalong those lines. As a social
worker, that's absolutely ourgoal, being able to take the
multidisciplinary knowledge fromthe team around stress and
(04:56):
behavioral health and well beingand health and bring that to the
community in a way that'saccessible to the community and
acceptable to the community hasbeen really important and really
helpful. And I'll give you anexample of this. It's an
initiative that we're doing thatwe call the Farm Stress
Production meetings. JenniferDunn is the person who does
(05:19):
these trainings, and I've beendoing the evaluation. But one of
the things we've learned fromtalking in rural communities,
particularly in farmingcommunities, is that farmers
have no time whatsoever, andfarmers are very, very
independent, self sufficient,I'm not going to ask for help,
I'm going to figure this all outmyself. So if you're going to
provide farmers with informationaround stress management, and
(05:42):
ways to be healthier, so theycan continue farming, you can't
have a program on farmers andmental health and expect people
to show up, they don't have thetime and nobody's going to walk
into something called mentalhealth. So instead, what we've
done is at the productionmeetings that Extension does, so
you know, January, February,there's a cotton production
(06:03):
meeting and the cottonagronomists come and all the
cotton farmers come and listen,and there's a meal and you've
got sort of a captive audienceof 30 to 50 farmers. The first
10 minutes, Jennifer goes in anddoes a really simple
conversation about stress.
What's stressing you all outthese days? What is stress,
what's good stress, what's badstress? How do you cope with
stress? That one's reallyinteresting, because we hear a
(06:25):
lot about tequila and prayer,which is sort of an interesting
continuum. And then, what aregood ways to manage stress? What
are not-so-good ways? 10 minuteconversation, very relaxed. And
then we have a packet ofinformation that gets put in the
stack along with all the cottoninformation or whatever that
they're going to get. So we'renot wasting their time, we're
(06:45):
coming to them as a farmingcommunity and we're talking
about stress, and we're usinglanguage that's acceptable. And
I think that idea of in thecommunity trying to be both
evidence-based, but accessibleand acceptable in how you
collaborate is really important.
(07:06):
And it's, I think, been a bigpart of why we've been able to
have some success with thiswork.
Emily Davenport (07:11):
Accessibility is frequently used as kind of a
buzzword these days, but it's soimportant.
Jordan Powers (07:16):
It's so important.
Anna Scheyett (07:17):
And it means so many different things to
different people. We've donesome work also with farm wives,
and one of the things they talkabout is thinking about what are
messages that you can give tofarmers that will be in places
they already are. Like, what'sthe restaurant in town where all
the farmers sit together forlunch? And you can have your
posters and your flyers there?
Or what could be something thatcould be read briefly while
(07:40):
they're sitting at a tractor orput in a calendar that they've
got on their desk? How do youmake it where they are as
opposed to make them have tocome to us for this information
when they just don't have aminute they're working sunup to
sundown.
Emily Davenport (07:55):
I like that, meet them where they're at.
Anna Scheyett (07:57):
Exactly.
Smart.
Sound Effect (07:58):
[chime]
Jordan Powers (08:01):
One of the ways Anna is meeting farmers where
they are is through her blog,Thriving on the Farm. We'll let
her tell you about it.
Anna Scheyett (08:08):
Quick plug for the blog?
Jordan Powers (08:09):
Please do.
Emily Davenport (08:10):
Absolutely.
Jordan Powers (08:11):
We love your blog.
And we will link that in ourshow notes.
Anna Scheyett (08:19):
Thank you, I appreciate that.
Oh, thank you. One of the thingsthat, again, as I was
mentioning, farmers don't haveany time, People have talked to
me, the wives particularly,you've got to have snippets kept
being the word that they wereusing. That you've got to have
things that people can do orread in five to 10 minutes,
because you don't get more timethan that. So the whole point of
this blog that I created,Thriving on the Farm, it's
something for someone to thinkabout that has to do with stress
and self care, though I wouldnever use that word, that you
(08:39):
could read in five to 10minutes. And in fact, you can
click the little button and itwill read it to you, or it's
something you can do in yourdaily life in five minutes a
day, it doesn't take any time tomake sure you drink enough
water, it doesn't take fiveminutes to stretch four times a
day, those kinds of things. Sopragmatic tips, and then just
things to think about, but thattake very little time. So
(09:02):
site.extension.uga.edu/thriving.
Jordan Powers (09:07):
I know I subscribe and I love getting it
in my inbox every week. So thatmakes, and other stuff that
makes it even easier. I don'thave to go look for it. It just
pops up in my inbox. And it'sright there.
Anna Scheyett (09:21):
Exactly. And I've made some really nice
connections through it. There'sone of the agronomy specialists,
Camp Hand, who just rocks. Ilove that man. He's amazing. And
I was talking to him aboutsomething else and he's like, I
really love what you're doing.
This is really important. I'mlike, you're really invested.
And he said, Yeah, it's becauseI had my own personal
experience. And he told me astory and I said, would you be
willing to go public? He said,absolutely. Oh, yeah. You know,
(09:44):
so his story's on the blog. Igot an email out of the blue
from a woman in Emmanuel Countywho's a therapist whose
husband's a farmer.
Jordan Powers (09:56):
Wow.
Anna Scheyett (09:56):
And so she's been promoting and sharing the
materials that we've got. Soit's been a nice way to start to
connect with some people, bothin Georgia and in other states
as well. And other countrie.
Australia is doing some reallycool stuff. And New Zealand,
like at some point, when youhave five minutes, Google Farm
Strong, it's a website. And I'veactually taken clips from it and
(10:17):
put it on the blog because theyhave farmers talking about their
mental health. And it's really,it's really amazing.
Emily Davenport (10:25):
That's really cool.
Anna Scheyett (10:26):
So there's some cool stuff going on all over the
world.
Jordan Powers (10:29):
Incredible.
Emily Davenport (10:29):
We can add a link to that in our show notes,
too.
Jordan Powers (10:32):
Absolutely.
Sound Effect (10:33):
[chime]
Emily Davenport (10:34):
National Rural Health Day is held on the third
Thursday of November, and thisyear, it's on November 16. Can
you tell us more about this dayand how our listeners can
celebrate the power of rural?
Anna Scheyett (10:46):
This is something that's been organized by the
National Association of StateOffices of Rural Health and
their partners to celebraterural. I think one of the first
things that people can do withthis is learn more. People don't
understand, and I know thatbecause I was one of them until
five years ago, when I startedto do this work, people don't
(11:07):
understand. Rural communitiesmake up almost 20% of the
population of this country,depending on how you count it,
and about 85% of the land. Soit's a big piece, it's not a
little niche interest. And theseare the people that feed us and
clothe us, you know, food andfiber. If you eat food, or you
use fiber, then you should caredeeply about rural communities
(11:30):
because of the agriculturalpiece, and then everything that
supports that. From everythingI've seen this year with
celebrating the power of rural,it's about understanding rural,
and it's about looking at itfrom a strengths not a deficit
perspective. There's all sortsof health disparities and
challenges in rural communities.
Rural communities are poor, theytend to have higher substance
use rates, they tend to havehigher mental health and stress
(11:51):
challenges and all sorts ofthings, but they're also
amazingly strong and resilientcommunities. And I think that's
what this day is about, iscelebrate the fact that these
communities sustain us all. Theyfeed the world. And they solve
problems in ways that areinnovative and creative, because
they have to, because they'reoften very resource-poor. But
those are great things we canall learn from. The formal and
(12:14):
informal network collaborationsthat happen in rural communities
around how you take care of kidsand address the risk of
substance use with children.
Communities have done reallyinnovative things with that, and
we need to look at that, we needto appreciate that, and we need
more health providers to go workin those areas. That's a huge
(12:36):
issue. 70% of the areas in thiscountry that don't have enough
health care providers are rural.
Jordan Powers (12:43):
Wow.
Anna Scheyett (12:43):
Healthcare providers, dentists, and mental
health providers, all of them.
So there's a lot of need, andit's a great place to work. I
love going to, you know, SouthGeorgia is where I do most of my
work. And I love going to Tiftonand to Moultrie and being out in
the community. And it's awonderful place to work. And I
think appreciating that insteadof looking at morality from a
deficit perspective is reallywhat we celebrate when you
(13:06):
celebrate Rural Health Day.
Sound Effect (13:09):
[chime]
Emily Davenport (13:11):
Each year, the National Organization of State
Offices of Rural Health and itspartners set aside the third
Thursday of November tocelebrate National Rural Health
Day. We'll include some linksfor you in the show notes.
Sound Effect (13:22):
[chime]
Anna Scheyett (13:24):
One of the things, I want to go back for a
second to that whole "suburbankid" thing, because that's
always been my identity. Butthen when I was pushed a little,
it was like, don't you have someconnections? It would really
make a difference if you hadsome connection. Andrea Scarrow
taught me that and I startedthinking, and my mother's
father, my mother's from PuertoRico. My mother's father had a
(13:46):
coffee farm. So I do have aconnection, but it wasn't the
stereotypical red barn kind offarm, so it just never came to
mind and it's never been part ofmy identity. But my grandfather
was passionate about his land.
And my husband's family were allpeanut farmers in South Alabama
for many generations. So I dohave connections and we all have
(14:07):
connections. You just have tothink about them.
Jordan Powers (14:11):
Absolutely.
Another exciting initiative, animpactful initiative through
CAES and UGA Extension is theRural Georgia, Growing Stronger
initiative. Can you tell usabout how this cross-college
collaboration is helping ruralGeorgians?
Anna Scheyett (14:27):
Absolutely.
That's sort of the hub where ourwork comes from. And it is both
multidisciplinary andtransdisciplinary in that we
really blend and work togetheracross the College of
Agriculture, Family and ConsumerSciences, Public Health, Social
Work, Pharmacy, people in Artsand Sciences also. So it's
(14:49):
bringing together andintegrating knowledge from a lot
of different perspectives, likeI was talking about what social
work brings to the table before.
But it's also looking veryholistically at Georgia. So
health, behavioral health, wellbeing and success of children. I
mean, the projects that peopleare doing who are involved in
(15:10):
Rural Georgia, Going Stronger,because it's sort of this
collaborative, and then we eachhave our own initiatives. And we
come together and we shareinformation and have ideas
together, but we've got our ownprojects that we're all doing.
But they're about health andobesity. They're about marital
relationships or couplerelationships. We have people
who are working on opioids inrural areas, and how can
(15:32):
communities build their owncapacity there? We have people
who are working on vaccineeducation and that aspect of
health and health education. Oneof the big challenges in rural
areas, if you do behavioralhealth work a lot, is just the
stigma of mental health. So wehave colleagues who are working
on that in addition to workingvery specifically on farmer and
(15:53):
rancher stress. So you pull allof this together, and it becomes
this whole is greater than thesum of the parts. And what we're
working to build, really, is tobe a resource team. In the same
way that there's, in Extension,there's a cotton team, there's a
soil team, Dr. Perry Johnson'sgotten a behavioral health team
(16:14):
within Rural Georgia, GrowingStronger, and we want to be a
resource both to Extension andthe university and the state.
Jordan Powers (16:21):
A hub is the perfect way to put it because
when I first saw the website,which we will link to in the
show notes for our listeners, itis. It's so much information in
so many areas of expertise. Andit's just, I'm biased, but a
brilliant resource for us tohave. So we will be sure to link
that in the show notes for ourlisteners.
Anna Scheyett (16:38):
Great, thank you.
Emily Davenport (16:39):
Definitely.
Anna Scheyett (16:39):
And you just used the word hub, which reminded me
of something which I think isreally important that we've been
working on. Dr. Virginia Brownand Maria Bowie have led some of
this conversation, along withDiane Bales from FACS, thinking
about Extension as a hub, ingeneral. We have actually
written a couple of papers onthinking of local extension as a
(17:00):
potential behavioral health hubin the community. It can be a
place where you can go forinformation about behavioral
health It could be a place wherethere was a telehealth kiosk,
maybe. It can be a place wherepeer support groups could
happen, where educationalopportunities could happen. And
the thing that's lovely aboutusing a local Extension office,
(17:22):
is that in the community,Extension's trusted. Extension
agents live in thosecommunities. They're part of the
community, they are a trustedcommunity member. And we did a
poster session, the title wasTrusted Spaces in Rural Places.
And it was about using Extensionas that hub. And there's no
stigma going to Extension. I'veheard people say I'm not parking
(17:44):
my truck in front of the mentalhealth center, everybody will
see it. Everyone goes toExtension, you could be going to
get your soil tested or droppingyour kid off at 4-H or whatever.
And you can go in and you canget information and resources
and get referred to the helpthat you need. So Extension,
just like Rural Georgia, GrowingStronger, can kind of be the hub
at the university for thisinformation. Each local
(18:05):
Extension office, if we providethem with the resources and the
information, can be a local hubin the same kind of way.
Jordan Powers (18:12):
That's quite a network.
Emily Davenport (18:14):
Yeah. I love that, thinking about it like a
hub to get your one stop shopfor all that you need.
Anna Scheyett (18:19):
Exactly. That's exactly it.
Jordan Powers (18:21):
That's great.
Emily Davenport (18:21):
We've talked a lot about how rural is maybe
associated with farmers andfarming, but that rural goes
much further than farmers. Canyou tell us more about the scope
of these programs and how theyimpact all rural Georgians?
Anna Scheyett (18:35):
That goes back to what I was saying before about
all the different projects thatthe people who are involved on
this, with us are doing. And itreally has to do with thinking
about the well being of peoplein rural areas, irrespective of
whether or not they're doingagriculture, because everyone in
a rural area has challenges ingetting to health care. So all
(18:57):
our work around health educationand health access fits with
that. We know that people inrural areas are at higher risk
of substance use. So the opioidwork that we've been doing,
dealing with the stigma, whichis really kind of a cultural
issue, though it's not justrural. So I think we're coming
at it with the exception of thefarmer stress, which is sort of
(19:18):
the the lane that I do most ofmy work in, which is much more
targeted at agriculture, it'sreally much broader about the
well being of rural communities.
And the flip side of it, too, isthat not all agriculture happens
in rural areas, and urbanagriculture can be very
stressful. It was interesting, acolleague of ours at Mercer
University, they did a survey offarmers, and they were asking
(19:40):
questions about stress andhealth and mental health and
concerns and all sorts ofthings. And it was a great
report and they had well over1000 responses. But the thing
that stuck with me is one of thequestions had to do with how
often do you think aboutsuicide? And when you broke it
out when they looked at thefirst generation farmers, which
(20:02):
is more likely what an urbanfarmer's gonna be, not only but
more likely, when you looked atthe first generation farmers, 9%
said they thought about suicidedaily.
Jordan Powers (20:16):
Wow.
Anna Scheyett (20:17):
So it's not just rural, we've got a lot of work
to do. It's sort of overlap.
Rural has its risks and stress,and agriculture has its risks
and stresses.
Emily Davenport (20:27):
Rural or urban, the COVID-19 pandemic impacted
everyone in some way. How didthe pandemic impact or change
the trajectory of your work? Andwhere do we go from here?
Anna Scheyett (20:37):
Oh, that's a simple question.
Jordan Powers (20:39):
Right? We threw a big one in there.
Anna Scheyett (20:42):
Yeah, a real "where do we go from here?"
That's like a whole section inthe paper that you write. COVID
did a number of things in termsof how I think about my work.
One is it brought to theforefront the importance of high
speed internet, and what anissue that is in rural
communities. In a lot of thefocus groups that were held
around opioids, the conversationshifted to the impact of COVID.
(21:06):
And how hard it had been for thechildren because they couldn't
go to school. And noteverybody's got internet. So
kids weren't able to participatevirtually. Some Extension
offices were opening up theirsite, so kids could do their
homework there because they didhave broadband, but the lack of
broadband and the lack ofawareness of the lack of
broadband has really becomesomething that I'm much more
(21:29):
aware of. And part of that'sbecause during COVID, we started
hearing more and more abouttelehealth, well, people can't
get to their appointments. Well,telehealth is the answer. It's
only the answer if you've gotthe internet. Telehealth is not
the way to fix the accessibilityproblem. I think COVID really
highlighted that. The otherthing that I think COVID
highlighted, for me, at least inthe work as I think about it, is
(21:51):
just the importance of networks,not internet networks, people
networks, and that one of thebig challenges with COVID was
the isolation, the people whohad lost their networks, and the
creative ways to try to pullthat together again is really
important, peer support, hugely,hugely important. And something
I've been thinking more and moreabout, one of the things that we
(22:13):
learned that COVID did when youthink about behavioral health
services in a rural community,in rural communities, they have
what I like to think of as justa de facto system. There's some
mental health providersomewhere, but the schools do
some of it. And juvenile justicedoes some of it, and 4-H does
some of it. And there's thisnetwork of agencies that are
called behavioral health, buttogether they create the network
(22:38):
that catches children. It'stheir safety net. And with
COVID, that gets shattered in alot of places. Because it was
built on personal relationships.
It was built on the 4-H personbeing able to go to the school.
In one of the focus groups,people were talking about how
when people didn't have eyes onchildren, how difficult that was
for Child Protective Services,it just kind of broke a very
(22:58):
tenuous system. So rebuildingnetworks and the importance of
networks is a place to moveforward. And you know, that's
not the answer to "where do wego from here?" but that's one of
the places I think we need tobuild more strength and more
intentionality in.
Jordan Powers (23:15):
It's a path forward to where we're going.
Anna Scheyett (23:17):
Yes, it's one of the steps.
Jordan Powers (23:19):
It is a step. And sometimes that's where we have
to start is a step closer.
Anna Scheyett (23:24):
That's right.
Jordan Powers (23:25):
When we're speaking of communities, rural
and urban, we do know thatGeorgia has a growing community
and population of Spanishspeakers, especially in the
rural communities where the H2Aprogram is highly utilized. Are
there efforts underway to servethe growing Spanish speaking
population?
Anna Scheyett (23:42):
Yes, and that is something where the Vaccine
Education has been particularlypowerful. There's been three
waves of efforts around vaccineeducation through some NIFA
grants, an Extension Foundation,and in the first two, because
the third ones just starting.
But in the first two, there werevery specific efforts. There
were focus groups in the migrantcommunities, in the H2A worker
(24:04):
communities. There was educationgoing out, there were people
partnering with local publichealth and bringing the vaccines
out to people, all the materialswere translated into Spanish. So
we're really aware of that andwe're trying to build more
capacity in that area. That'ssomething that we're very aware
of, and very much wanting tocontinue to involve the Latinx
community with.
Emily Davenport (24:28):
Glad to hear that.
Sound Effect (24:29):
[chime]
Jordan Powers (24:31):
NIFA is the National Institute of Food and
Agriculture, part of the UnitedStates Department of
Agriculture. NIFA providesleadership and funding for
programs that advanceagriculture related sciences.
We'll add a link in the shownotes.
Sound Effect (24:45):
[chime]
Jordan Powers (24:47):
What have we missed?
Anna Scheyett (24:48):
The piece that I would want anybody who's
listening to this to think aboutreally have to do with the myths
and the realities of rural life,and we've touched on that a
little bit, but how important itis for people who know and
understand rural communities, tonot just work with the rural
communities, but to educatepeople who don't know about it,
(25:09):
because most of them arepolicymakers. I mean, there are
really not that many people whoare writing laws, who are
passing policies, who areintimately familiar with the
reality of rural life. If youthink about it, rural
communities live underpredominantly urban laws. And I
read a fascinating article thatI can't remember the author's
(25:31):
name, but he talked about ruralareas as being areas of
extraction. It's the place wherewe take things, like food and
coal, for the benefit of sort ofeverybody but predominantly
urban areas. And we dump a lotof waste back. And we don't give
back. What's the number, 14cents out of every dollar that's
(25:51):
spent on food actually makes itsway back to a farmer? It's some
number like that. So for peoplewho understand and know, I think
we have a responsibility toeducate the rest of the world.
Now I'm on a personal mission toget every social worker to
understand that social work hasbeen built with an urban bias.
We came out of tenement housesand urban areas, and that rural
(26:12):
social work is not a boutiquetopic. It's something we all
need to be caring about andtalking about. So I hope that
everybody does that, all thepeople who know about rural
communities, work to educateothers and people who don't work
to educate themselves.
Jordan Powers (26:27):
We have laughed, we have talked about some very
deep topics, we really covered.
Anna Scheyett (26:34):
We've done it!
Jordan Powers (26:36):
We covered the continuum of emotion, but all
for such an essential andimportant topic that we do need
to be talking about more, andwe're very grateful for the work
that you're doing to that end,and for your time today to come
and join us on the show. SoAnna, thank you so much for
joining us this afternoon.
Anna Scheyett (26:54):
Well, thank you for your interest, and really
thank you for continuing toexpand this conversation that we
all need to be having.
Appreciate you greatly.
Sound Effect (27:02):
[music]
Emily Davenport (27:04):
Thanks for listening to Cultivating
Curiosity, a podcast produced bythe UGA College of Agricultural
and Environmental Sciences. Aspecial thanks to Mason
McClintock for our music andsound effects. Find more
episodes wherever you get yourpodcasts.
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