(lively music) - Hello and welcome to "Farm Connections."

I'm your host, Dan Hoffman.

On today's episode, we have an important discussion about mental health with NAMI Southeast Minnesota's Mirna Hernandez Lopez, Lee Formella, and Megan Toney.

And the University of Minnesota provides us a new "Best Practices," all here today on "Farm Connections."

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- Welcome to "Farm Connections."

We're in Rochester, Minnesota, at the southeast office of NAMI.

With me is Lee Formella.

Lee, thanks for joining us.

- Thank you for having me.

- Lee, what's the purpose and mission, and what do you do here at NAMI?

- Our mission here at NAMI Southeast Minnesota truly is to use our lived experience and our compassion to help others.

Whether that's through our support pillar and support groups and our one-on-one peer support, where people use, again, their lived experience to help other people.

And then we also use tell people stories in our education.

We advocate for the health of everyone and for truly the mental health resources and programs to get to where they need to be.

- So important, and oftentimes, we don't know where to turn.

- Absolutely.

- It could be a great place.

- We're a great place to turn.

So many of us have been through it here.

And so we'll understand really from the jump what people are going through, and we'll know how to understand and how to help.

Our goal is to be there for people and for them to have a place where they can turn, where they know they're gonna find people who understand and have that compassion and have been through it.

- Well certainly you're available when there's a big need like a crisis.

And certainly we need to build a bridge before we need it.

So what tools do you bring to people ahead of time, besides what we just mentioned?

- Well, a lot of it is sharing stories of what people have been through so nobody feels alone, to try and reduce and hopefully one day eliminate the stigma of mental illness and what that's living with.

And then providing hope.

Those are the three main facets of what we try and bring.

Now included in that is the skills that we try and share, just general knowledge that we try and share.

And of course, where do people go for help?

So we try and bring as much information for anywhere along that continuum that you're talking about, whether it's beforehand, during, or after.

We like to be able to help wherever we can.

We're also seeing rising rates of anxiety and depression these days.

And of course in other communities, we're seeing a rise in suicide rates.

So it's really important just to start the conversation.

- Some very serious things you're mentioning.

- Absolutely, absolutely.

- You bring up some very important topics.

And when we hear about mental health and maybe not working so well or suicide, that's extremely serious.

How do you identify when somebody has a need for counseling or possibly connecting with someone?

- I think what I'd generally tell people is, if you don't feel well, if you don't feel yourself, if you don't feel like the ideal version of yourself, it's a good idea to ask for help.

It's a good idea to search, seek out some answers.

That's what we really hope for, is to get the best version of everyone.

- So if someone, a friend, a family member, or even an individual that's suffering from mental health issues identifies that, what do they do?

Who do they reach out to?

- Well, we're a great place to start.

Please, we want everybody to feel comfortable calling us to start that.

But otherwise, primary care physician is a great place to start as well.

They can do the initial referral to a psychiatrist or a therapist.

There's a lot of different resources that can help and we wanna make sure, depending on the situation, you get the right help for the right situation.

- So if I call you or I contact you, and I don't know who I should talk to, you might guide me?

- Absolutely.

We're very happy to help guide you and point you to the right resources.

And if we don't have them, we'll be sure to find, help you find the people who do.

- Well, you're helpful.

Who do I call?

What's the number?

Is there a website, a phone number?

- Yeah!

So go to NAMIsemn.org, that's our website.

Or feel free to call us at 507-287-1692.

- Awesome.

- Absolutely.

- And Lee, let's say the situation is even a little more elevated and we've really got some sad feelings and where there's possibly suicidal thoughts.

Now who do we call?

- So if it's sad feelings, if it's more of that questioning state, you know you don't feel right, a Warmline is a great place to call.

Like I said, you know, give us a call.

However, if there's suicidal ideations, thoughts or even worse, make sure you call 988.

That's the number they're gonna send hopefully the right crisis resources for you, the crisis team for you.

And then, you know, we either take you to sometimes the hospital, sometimes the Crisis Resource Center, and sometimes just help you find the right resources that you need.

So really, all along the spectrum and the continuum of mental health care.

Thank you.

- And thanks for sharing.

- Thank you.

- Stay tuned for more on "Farm Connections."

(gentle music) (gentle music continues) (gentle music) Welcome to "Farm Connections."

We're at NAMI Southeast Minnesota, located in Rochester, with outreach into the entire area.

And with me today is the Executive Director, Megan Toney.

Welcome to "Farm Connections."

- Thanks.

Thanks for having me.

- Well, it's a delight!

It's an important topic.

What does NAMI stand for?

- NAMI stands for the National Alliance on Mental Illness.

We are the Southeast Minnesota affiliate covering seven counties in rural and Olmsted County.

- So you have a big reach?

- We do.

- And some of that's rural?

- Yes.

- What's the specific challenge for working with rural?

- I mean, I think the specific challenge that we see most often is just increased isolation in some of our outlying counties.

So, you know, in the Twin Cities, in the metro area, you're a hop, skip and a jump from another person but that's not always true in Southeast Minnesota.

So it's a unique challenge and a unique opportunity that we work to break down.

- Well, Megan, you have some farmer ranching background.

Can you tell me about that?

(Megan chuckling) - Oh, I do, yeah.

My family has pretty long ties to cattle ranching in the Flathead Lake area of Montana.

So I got to spend a lot of time on the ranches learning a lot about how that lifestyle works.

- What did you learn specifically about that lifestyle other than it's rather isolated sometimes?

- Yeah, I mean, I can remember my Uncle Harold giving me a lot of advice and talking about a lot of things.

One thing that we didn't talk about though was mental health and how sometimes there was a lot of joy on the ranch but a lot of difficulty and a lot of challenges on the ranch as well.

And those were the things that we didn't get a lot of advice about.

- (sighing) Possibly Uncle Harold was quiet and reserved in those areas 'cause of maybe reasons like we just don't share?

- Yeah, I mean, you...

He was a big man.

He was a big man in our family and held a lot of responsibility.

And I think felt a lot of responsibility to shield us from the less fun parts of the day-to-day life that ranching brought about.

So we were definitely there for the great steak dinners and the roundups of the cattle and all of the joys, and the birth and the death and all of that.

But the difficulties and the hard years were less talked about.

- So from your vantage point of being Executive Director at NAMI, and also your life experiences, what are some triggers that happen both in the rural and urban to cause mental health concerns?

- I mean, as time has gone on, we are more and more isolated people.

We live less in community day to day, like we're talking right now, and we communicate more behind screens and we communicate more through technology.

And that has increased isolation, no matter where you live.

And that's been a big catalyst for that increased disconnect.

And so one of the things that we do here at NAMI is try to get out into your community and offer you opportunities to connect with us in person so that we can share our lived experience with you.

- Very valuable.

- Yeah.

- In addition to hiding behind the screen or the curtain and getting technology as a barrier, what are other triggers that cause concern?

- Yeah, I mean, in Southeast Minnesota particularly, we have folks that are just living with a lot of uncertainty, right?

And some of it is unique to the time and some of it is unique to the place and the location.

So if your family is, you know, living under economics uncertainty or your livelihood is tied to things like unpredictable weather patterns, you might have more of that uncertainty in your life right now.

And that's a need for greater connection and a greater time to lean in toward one another in your community.

- And marketing and the cost of inputs- - Absolutely.

- All things that trigger us to think.

Or what about health insurance and access to health insurance?

- Yes.

- Or healthcare?

- Yes, I mean, the more spread out our communities are, the less mental health professionals, the less healthcare providers we have right in your backyard.

So it's important to know where your resources are.

If you don't know where your resources are, that's where we come in because we're happy to connect you to the ones that we do know about.

We work really hard to foster relationships across the region so that we are an up-to-date source of information for people that are looking to connect with those needed resources.

- How many people are in your office?

- Oh my gosh.

On a given day, it's a rotating basis.

So we do office out of Olmsted County but we are working across the region.

So we have an awesome team here of 10 but we are out and about in your community.

Not often in this office.

However, we are committed to being here when you need us.

And so we do have office hours here in Rochester and are able to be reached by phone or email anytime.

- With a wonderful staff of 10- - Yeah.

- You're making inroads.

But it's a big region and there's a lot of people and there's a lot of issues.

How do you leverage your staff?

How do you leverage your resources?

- Absolutely.

At its core, NAMI is a grassroots volunteer-based organization.

And so we rely immensely on an amazing core group of volunteers.

And we are always open, if someone wants to get involved in the work, to talking about the different opportunities that we have.

In particular, if you have a journey with your own mental illness or have supported a family member through their journey with mental illness, we would love to talk to you about how you can share your story either to impact one person's journey or to join our advocacy team and impact maybe the future.

- So you actually can help train volunteers?

- We have robust programs to help train volunteers so you don't need to know how to do the work, you just have to have a desire in your heart to do it and a story that you wanna share.

- How about fundraising?

- We have great community partners that we engage with throughout the year.

So be on the lookout to hear about, you know, more opportunities to support NAMI.

And then our big fundraising event is held each year in the fall in September.

We do a walk and we invite business owners and community members to come join us to really raise awareness about how we are all walking a journey with our mental health.

And doing it together, we have found time and time again it brings the greatest outcomes for our community.

- Something powerful about bringing people together in that positive context.

- Absolutely.

It's a great day, we have a lot of fun, but it's all for, you know, a really serious cause.

And we are committed to improving Southeast Minnesota community's mental health together.

- Wow, thank you so much for sharing today and the important work you do.

- Thanks, Dan.

(gentle music) (gentle music continues) (gentle music continues) (lively music) - [Presenter] "Farm Connections Best Practices" brought to you by Absolute Energy and AgVantage software.

(lively music) - I'm Brad Carlson, Extension Educator with the University of Minnesota Extension in the Water Resources Group.

I work a lot with soil fertility and water quality issues.

And this is today's "Best Practices" segment.

The last decade has been extraordinarily wet, and this has been very important for nitrogen application because the loss processes of nitrogen that are most significant are water-based, and that primarily happens when the soil is saturated.

So a lot of people ask the question after a nitrogen application has been made, either whether it be in the fall or prior to planting and then conditions get extremely wet, is, "Did I lose nitrogen?"

And that's a really fine question and it's dependent on a couple of key conditions in the soil.

One is that the soil has to be completely saturated in order for this to happen.

The two main processes are either leaching, which is moving the nitrogen down into the profile and into either shallow groundwater or field tile, or denitrification that happens in the atmosphere.

And so that happens through a biological process when oxygen is absent from the soil.

And because it's biological, it's really keyed in with the soil temperature.

And it happens faster and to a much greater extent when the soil is warm, as opposed to leaching where it doesn't really matter.

Now in both circumstances, the nitrogen has to be converted to nitrate before either of these processes will happen.

So most of our pre-plant, and obviously our fall applications, fall applications are going to be strictly anhydrous ammonia.

And then our pre-plant applications are likely to either be anhydrous or probably urea.

In both cases, the nitrogen has to actually convert to nitrate first before the loss can happen.

That also is a biological process that happens when the soil temperatures are warm.

So enough time has to elapse as well as the soil temperatures need to be warm enough for that to happen first.

And so, oftentimes, when we have extremely wet conditions early in the spring and there's been a fall application, farmers will say, "Well, it's been really saturated and really wet.

Did I lose nitrogen?"

Well, not very likely.

A fall application of anhydrous, with cold soil temperatures in the fall and of course frozen in the winter and then cold again in the spring, probably didn't convert the nitrogen into nitrate in order for the nitrogen to be lost.

And so that process happens as we get into the early part of the planting and growing season.

Typically we hit an average soil temperature of 50 degrees on about May 1st and so that's when that process really takes off.

And so most of our fall and pre-plant applications are fairly stable for that reason.

It's really then that we need to focus on whether it gets wet in the early part of the growing season.

That would be for leaching purposes.

If it's extremely wet, we can move nitrate into the tile.

But more significantly in southern Minnesota's denitrification, which is up into the atmosphere, because that is also a biological process and keys in on the soil temperature being warm, it really isn't until the temperatures are warming above 70 degrees and particularly when they get to about 80 degrees Fahrenheit that that is significant.

So really, that processes starts to happen in great significance when the soil is saturated, starting in about June.

And so that's when farmers need to really start paying attention to that.

If your soil is saturated, for one thing, it needs to be for more than two days at a time for it to even start.

But if the soil is saturated for more than two days, we can start losing nitrogen to denitrification.

If the soil is saturated for 10 full days, we can lose about half of our nitrogen that we've applied in that 10 day period.

And so really that's kind of the key.

If you've done a pre-plant or a fall nitrogen application is, really be watching for saturated soil conditions and particularly when the soil temperatures start to get warm.

And if that is the case, then you're gonna need to think about supplementing the applied nitrogen.

This is Brad Carlson, Extension Educator with the University of Minnesota Extension.

And this has been our "Best Practices" segment.

- Welcome to "Farm Connections."

We're at the office of NAMI, the Southeast Minnesota office located in Rochester.

And with me is Mirna Hernandez Lopez.

- Hi, Dan.

- Hi.

Well, thanks for joining us.

We wanna hear about the work you do at NAMI.

Can you tell us what you do here?

- Well first of all, thank you so much for the invitation and I'm really glad to share with you.

So!

Well we are doing great things over here.

So our main thing is mental health for sure, and we provide support services.

It's the main actually thing that we provide for everyone.

And I think, and we believe actually that it's really important that every single person have their space and have the opportunity to share those unique stories they have, the path they have been through.

And it can be touching.

It can be a lot for some people, but at the same time it can be something meaning for another people too.

- Well said.

And you, you possibly work with some underrepresented people.

What do you do special or different in that world?

- Well, let me tell you something.

Each human being is different.

So each community is different.

But you know what is a really rewarding experience?

When you can see how many communities go together and help each other.

I believe then if your community, your neighborhood is okay, the whole community can benefit about how you are doing the things.

So it's really cool when you actually let them know, we don't have all the answers but we are here for you.

So that is our message.

We want to include you, we want you here to let us know what you need, what happened in your life?

So let us know in which way we can work and we can talk to more people in your community.

So that is amazing.

I really enjoy to work with many communities.

- Thank you, Mirna.

- Thank you.

- What happens when somebody is trying, maybe they're new to our country and they're trying their best to be a good citizen, they're trying to contribute, grow their family, but they're scared.

They don't know who to talk to or who to trust.

What next?

- Wow.

That is a good question actually, because even when we are heading in a different ways for different things, I think the most important thing is to be connect.

To feel you can connect with someone and be here, is a huge difference.

And it's part of mental health.

How many times we deal with something and we just want to talk?

And when you talk, and when you feel someone is hearing you, it makes a huge difference.

So it's the same.

It's a big thing, let me tell you, because you have your own culture, your own country, your family.

And when you are in a different country, with different things, you have to adjust to many things.

But you know what, it makes a big difference when you actually find people who is able to embrace who you are and to actually welcome you with a smile on their face and say, "I don't understand a bit what you saying and your accent sounds really weird but I'm here."

And that is about what we are working here, what I am working here.

Because I really want to let the people know then actually we are human beings and we need support.

And in the worst cases actually, in the worst times, we need someone to hear how the way we feel, how we feel.

- I'm hearing that the most valuable thing is listening and being heard?

- Hm-mm, yes.

Is the first step, I think.

- One of the most important things of a several step journey, right?

- Of course, it's the first of many, many, many steps.

(Mirna chuckling) - You mentioned self care.

- Yes.

- Elaborate on that.

And I know you do some things, some very wonderful things with exercise and the connectivity that is to the mind and to the body.

Tell us about self-care.

- That is a great topic actually because many times we have to work, we have to do many things.

We have to be excellent in the school.

We have a profession, a family, a job.

So self-care is really important because when you are able, not just to function, when you are able to know and realize who you are, in which way you feel day by day, you provide the best for the people.

When you have a really hard situation and you go to your house and you see a mess over there, and you have a hard situation into your house, you cannot assess that situation then when you go calm and more stable.

So that is about self care.

Self care is important.

We try so hard to educate, not just adults, kids and students to practice self-care.

Now, self-care sometimes they, many people think, like it's something that feels good for you.

Sometimes it's not.

Sometimes actually you have to go to your appointments, you have to eat well, you have to eat vegetables and you maybe don't like it.

But it's part of self care, you know.

It's really important we assess.

It's not just to have an ice cream, shopping time and it feels good for me.

Sometimes self care is hard but we have to follow that in order to help others and be able to function in the community.

- Some people take energy from people.

Mirna seems and appears to give energy.

And those people return the favor by giving you energy.

Is that safe?

Is that safe to say?

- It is!

It is actually because sometimes, of course, you need energy, but if you have a person in your side and actually try to push you, in a good way, with the right words, because sometimes the people saying, "I cannot smile.

Don't ask me for that.

It's too much."

And I can understand that.

But is like a muscle.

When you practice once and once, and I mean several times, the same muscles, and you work out, the muscle is getting stronger.

So it's the same when you have people around you and encourage you and empower you to do the things.

I think self care starts with you, but it can impact many lives.

So yes, it's safe if you are able, if you don't drain your own energy.

Because sometimes you have just enough energy to do some things, right?

So I think it's a good thing to do.

But yes, we have to think about our own self-care.

- Thank you, Mirna.

- Thank you.

- Thanks for sharing.

- Thank you.

- Well, that just about does it here for today's episode of "Farm Connections."

I'm Dan Hoffman.

Thank you for joining us.

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