Helping farmers prioritize health, happiness

If mental health therapist Ted Matthews had a nickel for every time someone told him, “It is not bad enough yet to get help,” he would have a heavy piggy bank.

“You don’t have to wait until anything,” Matthews said. “Why wouldn’t you simply say, ‘I want to be healthier?’”

Matthews, who has worked for over three decades in mental health and helped to spearhead the MN Rural Mental Health program, is retiring from his position as director.

Matthews has spent the majority of his career working with the rural and agricultural community. He said what is distinct about this community is that farming is more than an occupation; it is a way of life.

“If there was ever an occupation on this planet that could identify it is who we are and not what we do, it’s dairy farmers,” Matthews said. “They get paid far too little for what they do. … Every dairy farmer I’ve ever known deserves to make way more than they do. To me, there is no more honorable occupation than someone who does something for the love of doing it.”

Matthews said he encourages farmers to focus on their mental health so they can become happier, even if by a small percentage.

“Farming is always stressful,” Matthews said. “There’s not a moment where it’s not stressful. It’s a matter of what do you do with that stress.”

Over his years, Matthews has seen changes in agriculture. He said one of the biggest changes on farms is the role of women. Today, many women are outside the home and are employed on the farm, working in town to help with additional income or insurance, or are doing the farm books and weighing in on financial decisions.

Matthews also has seen a change in beginning farmer opportunities.

“For forever, if a person wanted to be a farmer, they could be,” he said. “You just put in the time and the effort, and you buy a little land. … Now, with land prices being what it is, that’s not possible. You can’t just go into farming.”

Matthews said now, not only is it harder to get into farming, it is also more challenging to succeed at it.

“The idea forever was, if you were willing to work hard enough and put the hours in, you could be a farmer,” Matthews said. “That is no longer the case.”

These changes are some of the strains Matthews helps farmers navigate.

Matthews said the support he has felt from the state of Minnesota, farmers and farm organizations has been one of the things that makes him smile in his role.

“I wouldn’t be able to do what I do if it wasn’t for a lot of people,” Matthews said. “They never get the credit that they deserve, and I wish they would.”

He also acknowledges how his wife, Cathy, has impacted his work.

“She’s always supported what I do, which makes my life 1,000 times easier,” Matthews said. “That constant commitment is just awesome.”

Matthews started his career working in a clinical setting for 10 years before working for the Federal Emergency Management Agency. While at FEMA, Matthews received a call from a Minnesota Farm Business Management instructor inquiring whether FEMA worked with farmers’ mental health.

“I looked on our books, and in a year, not one farmer had ever called,” Matthews said. “Then I realized that farmers don’t call psychologists.”

From there, the idea to create a rural-focused mental health option for Minnesota farmers was born. Jim Molenaar, who was region dean of management education at Ridgewater College at the time, worked to write grants and educate legislators about the fledgling project. Matthews worked under a grant from the St. Paul-based Otto Bremer Trust for three years before a bipartisan bill was passed for funding for rural mental healthcare in Minnesota, eventually going into the baseline budget.

Since the MN Rural Mental Health program started, Matthews has been helping families navigate stress, loss, disasters, family issues and more on their way to a healthier, and happier, life.

“The words were originally set up to be the right words, which is ‘mental health,’” Matthews said. “It’s turned into, somehow, over the years, into the concept of mental illness.”

He said farmers should get to know themselves better, which requires them to be nice to themselves.

“Somewhere along the line, we came up with this idea that to improve, we have to call ourselves names; we have to be negative,” Matthews said. “What we need to do is say, ‘I’ve got things I need to work on, but I have positive things too.’”

He said since each person is different, each person’s path to lowering stress will be unique to them. However, he said a general principle he has seen is that respect is the key to having an easier path towards happiness.

“If we disagree on something and we respect that person, good things happen,” Matthews said. “It’s OK to disagree, but if we don’t respect that person and we’re clones of each other, no good things will happen.”

When he looks at his future, Matthew plans to stay busy. He has considered working on a part-time basis. Regardless, he said he wants to continue to help people.