By BECKY KISER
Hays Post
Will Stutterheim has a keen insight into the mental health of farmers and ranchers.
He is a psychology instructor at Fort Hays State University who has been making public presentations about mental health in agriculture more almost 20 years.
The first presentation, Stutterheim recalled, was to a somewhat stoic audience of just three people.
Today, his audiences of ag producers across Kansas and Nebraska often have as many as 300 people, and they're more willing to engage.
Most recently he was in St. Francis and Dodge City where he was invited to speak by ag-related organizations.
"It's been amazing to watch," Stutterheim said. "I'm trying to get out and talk about the importance of people in agriculture and understanding the whole framework of trying to break down the stigma."
During his presentations—scheduled after milo harvest— Stutterheim first shares his personal story of being raised on a multigenerational farm in Phillips County.
His family was served with an eviction notice on Christmas Eve, when he was in third grade. They had to move into town, "a huge adjustment," and fight to eventually get the farm back.
"That's when I very first saw the stress in agriculture. ... I lived the stigma firsthand," he said. "You know, the 'rub some dirt on it. Don't cry. Pull yourself up by your bootstraps.'"
His childhood experience fueled Stutterheim's interest in psychology and rural mental health issues as an adult.
He previously worked in community mental health in Phillipsburg for almost 13 years before he started teaching at FHSU.
"Made it easy to do my therapy and then go help out on the family farm, just 15 miles away. That's where I really saw the need to start having these presentations," he said. "Just seeing how much was being affected in our ag community, and I knew I had to do more than my one-on-one therapy sessions."
Farming and ranching are different than a lot of other industries.
The drought, high input costs and the price of diesel fuel are among the current adverse conditions affecting farmers and ranchers over which they have little or no control.
Combined with the stigma of mental health awareness, it makes a recipe for stress for a lot of people and those around them, Stutterheim said.
"Years ago, a farmer told me he literally feels like he's gambling with the land under his feet every day. He's planning, and he has no idea what it's going to look like six or eight months later," Stutterheim said.
Stutterheim credits his partners throughout Kansas for helping to get information about rural stress and mental health issues to his audiences and beyond.
"I talk about being resilient on the farm, and that's an important part to that message spreading," he said.
Audience participants range in age from those in their 60s and thinking about succession planning to young people of the next generation.
"I've been astounded by their willingness to interact with me and to talk about it in front of another group in agriculture," Stutterheim.
Most people have some negative stress in their life. Stutterheim said there's a gap between when you notice it and when you actually admit to yourself versus admitting it to other people.
"It's so empowering and so eye-opening when people are interacting and willing to share during these presentations," he said. "I think that's doing as much to break down the stigma as anything I'm doing on the stage."
Stutterheim was honored in 2024 with the inaugural Rural Minds Matter Advocate of the Year award from the Kansas Farm Bureau.