Program supports the mental health of international workers

Staff with Agriculture Wellness Ontario who are running pilot programs for international workers in Windsor-Essex and Brant-Haldimand-Norfolk say international farm workers often face unique challenges when it comes to their mental health and accessing support. ~ Farmphotos.ca photo

By Luke Edwards

Even though in two years they’ve made thousands of connections and supported hundreds of international agricultural workers, Susan Gonzalez and Diana Granobles see much more room for growth.

Gonzalez and Granobles help run the International Agricultural Worker Wellness Program through Agriculture Wellness Ontario. The pilot programs began in 2024 with two locations: Windsor-Essex and Brant-Haldimand-Norfolk. It’s offered in partnership with the Canadian Mental Health Association branches for those two regions.

Similar to the overall goals of AWO - which provides various mental health supports and education for farmers in the province - the IAWWP focuses on the thousands of workers who come from Jamaica, Mexico and elsewhere to those regions every year to work on local farms.

In some ways the challenges faced by farmworkers who live permanently in Ontario and those who are temporary look similar. Stress, loneliness and communication challenges can make life difficult for any farmworker. However, Gonzalez points out that international workers face unique hurdles to overcoming those challenges.

“Talking about international (workers) it’s very, very different, the challenges that they face,” she said.

Those unique aspects include the fact that often there are large groups who work and live together, potentially sharing tight spaces for several months at a time.

Then there are both language and transportation barriers. It can be hard for a person to share their complex mental health concerns with a professional when they have to speak or listen in a language that’s not their first.

At the same time, farmworkers are often housed in remote locations, with limited access to services in towns like Simcoe. Working long hours and often not having their own transportation, workers may only have a brief period each week in which to do their groceries, banking, shopping, and other errands. It can leave little time to meet with a mental health provider.

“It’s very challenging to catch their attention. That’s a reason our workshop must be a space for relaxation, for recreation, and to disconnect, but at the same time, to give some tools, and practical strategies,” said Gonzalez.

The IAWWP is split into three main pillars, similar to the overall AWO programming. The first are workshops that can be provided in various forms to workers. They cover topics like managing stress, understanding loneliness and building community, and teamwork and problem solving. Since the pilot began they’ve provided nearly 40 workshops to more than 600 individuals.

There’s also a workshop geared towards farm owners, covering “practical strategies to strengthen communication, build trust within teams, and support overall well-being in day-to-day farm operations, with consideration for the unique context and experiences of international agricultural workers,” the program page on the CMHA Brant Haldimand Norfolk website says.

A second pillar is the Farmer Wellness Initiative, which is offered to all farmworkers, including in other languages like Spanish.

The final pillar is a resource guide that brings together all the outside resources the IAWWP team can find into one guide for workers to access.

“This program is one excellent connection, because we try to explain not just from the mental  health perspective. We promote their wellness. We promote their wellbeing over all. Because we include several dimensions,” said Granobles.

And while they’ve already made a significant impact - in addition to the 677 individuals who have participated in a workshop, program organizers have also held nearly 200 events, directly engaged around 5,000 international workers and distributed 4,000 resource guides - Gonzalez and Granobles said they’re continually looking for ways to adapt, improve and reach more people.

“I would always like to find new organizations, new ways to create connections,“ said Granobles.

That includes improving connections with farm owners. Some have been very open, for instance last year a farm owner held a barbecue where the IAWWP team could come and offer their workshops and provide information to workers onsite.

However, Granobles and Gonzalez acknowledge it can at times be difficult.

“It’s hard to navigate. So we need to be very careful with that. Because the intention is to help them (farm owners) to provide some tools, not to discover irregularities or anything like that. So we need to gain their trust,” Gonzalez said.

In fact, it’s one area where Gonzalez is keen to learn more.

“This is one of the things that I want to discover. I would like to know how open they are to this idea,” she said.

For Granobles, having that presence in town and being a familiar face is important. She’ll often offer a friendly hello, in Spanish, to workers who are out doing their weekly shopping. When they hear something like, “Hola, como estas?” from Granobles, she said their faces tend to light up.

In fact, she said there’s a liveliness that returns to the Norfolk-Brant-Haldimand region when the workers begin returning for the growing season.

“When the workers start arriving, the dynamic, the energy changes,” she said.

As for the general public, Gonzalez said there remains a gap.

“I think the rest of the population knows that they exist. But there is no integration,” she said.

Events like a welcome back barbecue hosted in May aim to create that integration.

As IAWWP staff continue to adapt the program to better serve its pilot communities, Gonzalez said they hope to be able to expand into new communities.

For more information, visit agriculturewellnessontario.ca.