Community Safety And Well-Being For Huron Launched Their 2025 Campaign On Friday

by Bob Montgomery

Members of Community Safety And Well-Being For Huron held a meeting last Friday to review last year's inaugural year and to launch this year's campaign.

Manager Michaela Johnston explains, they introduced four specific campaigns last year. The Mental Health and Addiction campaign ran from January to March, the Domestic and Family Violence campaign ran from April until June, the Community Security campaign from July until September, and the Housing Stability and Homelessness campaign October until December.

At Friday's meeting they launched the first campaign of their second year and that is a Mental Health and Addiction campaign. It will run until March. Lynn Higgs is the Chief Nursing Executive and VP of Clinical Services at Huron Health System, and a spokesperson for the Mental Health and Addiction campaign. She says research has demonstrated that farmers are particularly vulnerable to mental health problems. Factors that contribute to that include stress, isolation and unpredictability. She says research has shown that one in four farmers have contemplated suicide in the last year.

Higgs says another factor that makes farmers more vulnerable is the stigma that's attached to having a mental health issues and the belief by some people that they're supposed to just tough it out and deal with the problem on their own. Then the isolation compounds the problem because it gives them so much time on the own to constantly worry about their situation. Higgs says it's important for farmers to talk to each other to eliminate the stigma attached to mental illness and encourage farmers to get the care they need.

Higgs says a very interesting study was conducted with rats about the value of being socially involved in dealing with mental health and addiction. In the first test one rat had the choice between drinking just plain water or drinking water that was laced with cocaine or heroin. Inevitably the single rate would choose the drugged water. But a later study with several rats in a group were given the same choice and they invariably chose the clean water over the drugged water. So there were no over doses in that second group. Higgs says the experiment clearly demonstrates the importance of having some social interaction.

More information about the campaign can be found on the https://cswbhuron.ca/ website.