Skip to main content
Skip to main content

Mental Health Alert: Do You Know Who to Call and Are You Listening?

For the last three summers my daughter has volunteered to help with Safety Town, our early childhood safety education program that teaches 4- to 6-year-olds safety involvement through role-playing and actual life situations. One of my daughter’s main duties is to get the kids in her group to memorize their parents’ phone number and home address, in case they ever have an emergency or must call 911. I thought of that simple childhood exercise this week at the 21st annual Agricultural Media Summit after hearing Ted Matthews, director of Minnesota Rural Mental Health, encourage ag communication professionals to not only listen to farmers and producers, but to know who to call when visiting with someone with a possible mental health emergency. [Source: