In society today, mental health still carries a stigma. Across different societies, financial structures, and workplace environments, they all have an approach to dealing with and understanding mental health. Despite the changes that have occurred over the past few years when thinking about mental health, there are still places that lack the capability to understand that mental health is just as important as physical health. There are many different thoughts on mental health someone will hear from time to time that cross the line between opinion and fact. Sometimes it is just as easy for someone to take a break from what their daily routine requires as it is to hear the multitude of generational opinions on what taking a break means about an individual's character and work ethic.
When examining the risk factors for farmers, examples of long hours with unpredictable schedules based on the weather, loss of land through development, eminent domain, and PFA chemicals polluting the land, livestock, and community homes with increased regulations limiting the ability to effectively provide for their families and their way of life are some of the many factors as to why that number is incredibly too high.
Although it is at times an uncomfortable topic to discuss, one Windham business is making a difference in the fight to end the stigma against mental health. Southpaw Packing Co., which does business as Windham Butcher Shop, has been making progress to help people in the farming and agriculture business to receive help through their fundraising initiative, “Slicing Through The Stigma.”
In February, one of the co-owners of Southpaw Packing Co. Nichole “Niki” Sargent, partnered with NAMI Maine and created the “Slicing Through The Stigma” campaign. Even though she had been working alongside NAMI Maine for over four years, this new campaign was something brand new.
“I’ve been in Health and Human Services for over 20 years, but I’m not a clinical person,” Sargent said. “I’m just someone who has also experienced mental health issues in my life and people feel very comfortable speaking to me, and I was very compelled to find a way to connect people.”
She first took interest in creating “Slicing Through The Stigma” after she noticed a lack of access to mental health services in the farming and agriculture community. Wanting to find a solution, Sargent partnered with NAMI Maine to establish a place of access to the services individuals might need.
“We put together a whole webpage on our business website through the Windham Butcher Shop and put it together for access, just so people can go in and click a button and can be anonymous and people could access information about the services that were out there,” she said.
Being in the type of business that she is in, she says that the industry is more of a hub in many ways.
“What we do as a processer, we're connected with farmers, we’re connected with restaurant community, we’re connected with the markets that sell produce,” Sargent said. “We’re the middle man for so many people and we hear so many stories so we can be that central location where people can come or click a button and say, ‘Hey, they’re going to give us some information’ and I feel comfortable with that.”
On the Southpaw Packing Co. website there are more than a dozen links to mental health information and services pertaining to anxiety, ADHD, depression, OCD, PTSD, and suicide, and links to NAMI Maine’s services. These links are there for the individuals searching for help and to promote the encouragement of an atmosphere that brings awareness and importance to mental health services and resources.
One of the important pieces in “Slicing Through The Stigma” is NAMI Maine’s Senior Clinical Director of Adult Education Hannah Longley. When Sargent partnered with NAMI Maine, it was Longley who worked with her personally to cultivate the access point and information that Sargent was looking for. NAMI Maine, a chapter of the national organization NAMI, focuses on providing support, education, and advocacy for the 1 in 4 Mainers who struggle with mental health and has been around for 40 years.
According to Longley, who has worked with NAMI for over 12 years, the organization has had a four-year partnership with Sargent where they have worked extensively on creating mental health services and a place for access for the farming and agriculture community. In February, Sargent came to Longley with the idea of creating a “raising awareness campaign,” which later became the “Slicing Through The Stigma” initiative.
“Niki has been incredibly progressive, and she recognizes that she works with a high-risk population but also part of the high-risk nature of the population is the fact that there is a stigma that exists and over the years she has done every initiative she could to raise the awareness about resources and a better understanding of mental health,” Longley said.
One of the goals behind these services and this campaign is to normalize the seeking of mental health treatment just as much as it is to seek treatment for physical health.
“The average timespan that people wait to seek mental health treatment from when they first start experiencing symptoms until they actually seek treatment is about 10 years,” Longley said. “We would never do that with our physical health concerns. We would never let a random bump on our body go for ten years without seeking treatment. Why would we do that with our mental health?”
The work that NAMI Maine and “Slicing Through The Stigma” are doing is giving a better understanding to that question and finding solutions and answers.
Although the answer to that question may be complex, one answer with certainty is normalizing the conversation, a core message that the Manager of Marketing and Development of NAMI Maine Elliot Sharples has been able to provide through her work with the “Slicing Through The Stigma” effort.
“I think once you normalize that conversation, it allows us to give education, support, and advocacy to help support those one in four Mainers who are affected by mental illness,” Sharples said. “That’s why we’re so proud and excited to work with Niki on this project.”
It’s safe to say that the conversation about mental health has changed and become a more prominent topic over the past few years. Mental health has come a long way from once being filled with silence and denial, and even though the conversation may raise questions that seem intimidating to ponder, or answers that feel too far out of reach, the work Nichole Sargent, Hannah Longley, Elliot Sharples, NAMI Maine, and “Slicing Through The Stigma” are doing for the farming and agriculture community and mental health as a whole is something that needs to be recognized and utilized.
As Nichole Sargent puts it, “We’re just trying to open it up say, ‘Hey, we can talk about this.’”
For more information, visit southpawpacking.com/health-wellness/ or namimaine.org/southpawpacking, where you can navigate the services provided by NAMI Maine and Southpaw Packing’s “Slicing Through The Stigma.” <
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