ones, from obtaining adequate care. In areas where mental healthcare is available, stigma, cost, and
scheduling delays often discourage agricultural producers from seeking help. Left untreated, mental health
conditions such as depression, anxiety, and substance use can lead to reduced quality of life, absenteeism,
and presenteeism in work contexts, higher rates of agricultural-related injury, suicidal ideation, and
premature death due to suicide, heart disease, cancer, and respiratory diseases.
The NexGen Program analysis creates a framework that helps to determine the most efficacious mental
health intervention programs, packages the suite of tools together, and then promotes the adoption of the
improved programs across the NCFRSACi partner institutions. Identifying and removing barriers to access,
data, and information is key to improving impacts and outcomes. The internal and external barriers that
were addressed are found in Figure 2 (below) and include:
Lack of accessible data sources;
Limited evidence of the quality of mental health interventions/opportunities designed for agriculture producers;
Lack of access to information and coordination of resources; and
Challenges to integrating mental health care within rural community-based health care programs.
Figure 2. Original Data Collection and Evaluation Process
Prior to the creation of the digital tools developed to coordinate and evaluate the program, each component
of the program was recorded and documented individually. Figure 2 illustrates the dispersed method for
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