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The Story Of Former Broadcast Journalist, Now Farmer's Struggle With Mental Health in Rural Farming

2/27/2023

MANITOBA, CANADA:

Former broadcast journalist now farmer, Lewellyn Melnyk has personalized the plight of mental health issues as they affect our rural farming population. She shares the excruciating isolation of being a farmer and the hours spent on her farm that separated her from the support she needed while suffering from depression and anxiety.

Starting in her teens, her struggle was unbearable enough for her to consider suicide. To shine a light on the subject and hopefully help others Melnyk wrote, Rooted: How I Stay Small-Town Strong When Life Gets Hard and How You Can Too: A Guide to Finding Joy, Learning from Struggle, and Coming Together One Season at a Time.

Besides humor and a vivacious attitude, Melnyk turned to her love of music and Rooted uniquely includes a playlist that helped her get through the challenges. And, in 2021 she facilitated a mental health program called, “Talk, Ask, Listen.”

Lewellyn Melnyk is a journalist by trade and a farmer by choice. She worked as a reporter and in anchor at CKX-TV in Brandon, Manitoba before focusing on farming alongside her husband and family.

In 2021, she facilitated a mental health program called “Talk. Ask. Listen.” in collaboration with the Do More Agriculture Foundation, a national organization that teaches farmers how to recognize the symptoms of mental illness and get support She lives on a grain farm near Angusville, Manitoba, with her husband and two children.

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