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Fiddlehead Care Farm the base for Suicide Awareness Council seminar

September 16, 2019   ·   0 Comments

By Brian Lockhart

Fiddlehead Care Farm in Mono partnered with the Suicide Awareness Council to host a Suicide Awareness day at the Farm’s 25 Sideroad location last Saturday, September 7.

“World Suicide Prevention Day is on Tuesday (Sept. 10) and the Council is celebrating its 20th anniversary of doing suicide prevention and awareness in Dufferin County as well as Wellington,” explained Suicide Awareness Council co-ordinator Heather Glenister. 

“We wanted to do something family-related. We wanted people to come out and enjoy nature and look at the benefits of nature and get unplugged. The Council is a collective of organizations and volunteers who come together to look at what’s happening in our community around suicide. We create resources, create workshops and we have speakers. We really focus on being responsive to our communities and what’s going on.”

According to Statistics Canada, there were over 4,100 suicides in Canada in 2017, making it the ninth leading cause of death. 

In Ontario more than 600 suicides are recorded each year.

Those may be the statistics, however Ms. Glenister said that even though the Council is aware of the numbers, they do not focus on that but rather on the individual.

“We don’t like to talk about statistics because it takes away from the individual story of each person and why they took their life,” she explained. “The Council has been trying to break down the stigma and say ‘it’s okay to talk.’ The best way to prevent suicide is to talk about it.”

Having the event at the 50-acre Fiddlehead Care Farm was a good fit.

Fiddlehead Care Farm provides children, youth, and young adults with developmental, physical, emotional and behavioural needs, along with their families, the opportunity to learn, experience and grow without boundaries through innovative, animal-assisted therapy and nature-based education, rehabilitation and recreation.

The farm model is already in used in Europe and is fairly new to Canada.

“Myself and my business partner Brianne are the founders of Fiddlehead Care Farm,” explained Stephanie Deaken. “We have a variety of services. We like to think we all have special needs. Everyone can benefit from nature or from visiting nature. Sometimes it’s hard to use the word ‘special needs,’ because all kids can benefit from being outdoors. Our idea is to get kids back to nature. There’s a lot of research out there that says nature and time with animals and time in the garden can really reduce levels of anxiety. It’s calming and very grounding.”

The Farm has been operating for three years.

“Today we have a variety of things set up to show the power of nature and animals on our positive mental health,” Ms. Deaken said. “When you’re here, it doesn’t feel like you’re in a counselling session. You can work on all of those self-doubts in a therapeutic way.” 

The Council is always looking at new approaches when dealing with prevention.

“The Suicide Awareness Council is now focusing on farmers and the agriculture sector, and depression and mental wellness,” Ms. Glenister said. “There’s a huge issue out there that just isn’t being addressed.”

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