Rural Caregivers Face Mental Health Challenges Too – Iowa Agribusiness Radio Network

By Riley Smith

May is Mental Health Awareness Month, and Rural Minds and the National Grange held a webinar discussing the challenges facing caregivers in rural America. Those mental health challenges often get overlooked. Brittnee Henry is a communications and marketing professional who returned to her home in Iowa to care for her father when it became clear he couldn’t live on his own anymore.

“I chose to move home and be his advocate,” Henry said. “Even though he’s in a care facility, people must have an advocate and someone that can be there on a day-to-day basis at the drop of a hat if need be. Because of the nature of the disease with frontal temporal dementia, there’s a lot of agitation, there’s fear, and it was necessary for me to move home. So, it’s been a lot of tipping your life upside down, but I realized it’s really important to take care of yourself first when you’re a caregiver.”

Watch the webinar recording here

Hear audio by webinar panelists on the Iowa Agribusiness website