The pandemic has laid bare the importance of having a high-speed internet connection, as many Americans have been forced to conduct their lives online. Yet, tens of millions of people across the country, especially in rural areas and tribal lands, lack the kind of fast or reliable connection they need for things like work, school and telehealth.

FRANKFORT, Ky. — The U.S. Department of Agriculture has awarded $500,000 grant to the Kentucky Department of Agriculture to expand its efforts to address stress, mental health, and suicide prevention among agriculture producers, Commissioner of Agriculture Dr. Ryan Quarles announced today.

There has been a growing awareness of depression and the need for suicide prevention in the veterinary industry in recent years.

Five years ago, I received a call my mom had passed away. I was 30 years old and suddenly motherless. Later that afternoon, I was told she had died by suicide. In that moment, and in many moments thereafter, I was shattered and broken. I could not stop replaying my new reality: my mom had taken her life. I was devastated.

DUBLIN, Oct. 18, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Alkermes plc today announced that LYBALVI® (olanzapine and samidorphan) is now available by prescription in the United States for the treatment of adults with schizophrenia, and for the treatment of adults with bipolar I disorder, as a maintenance monotherapy or for the acute treatment of manic or mixed episodes as monotherapy or an adjunct to lithium or valproate. LYBALVI is a once-daily, oral atypical antipsychotic composed of olanzapine, an established antipsychotic agent, and samidorphan, a new chemical entity.

New funding will allow more medical appointments to take place via video in rural communities, where some of the nation’s oldest and sickest patients live.

The roughly 15 percent of the population living in rural America includes some of the oldest and sickest patients in the country — a disparity that has grown more stark during the coronavirus pandemic. The Biden administration is investing more in telemedicine, whose use has grown sharply during the pandemic, as a way to improve their access to care.

Sparsely populated communities face unique challenges, such as isolation and cultural stigmas about mental health, that call for tailored suicide prevention approaches.

“I believe to take this discussion to the next level, we must understand this crucial point,” said Jason Medows, a pharmacist and host of the Ag State of Mind podcast. “Mental health is not something you either have or don’t. It’s something that exists on a spectrum and something each one of us needs to pay attention to,” said Medows in a presentation during the Women in Agriculture Conference, sponsored by the county Farm Bureaus in northwestern Illinois.

American Farm Bureau works to destigmatize mental health in farming communities with online resource directory.

VICE News got a chance to meet Jeff Ditzenberger and some of the farmers he who say he’s helped them open up about their mental health struggles.