Since January of this year, there have been 57 school shootings in America. And since August when many students began returning to school, there have been five already, including the deadly and tragic shooting in Minneapolis.

There is a sign that continues to be proudly displayed on the front lawn of a house near Panama that reads, “God, Guns and Trump,” showing the cross, American flags and guns. This clearly illustrates why we have this growing issue in this country. Nowhere does it say anything about children or the sanctity of life in general.

Living on a farm in a rural area of Chautauqua County, I understand and appreciate the role that firearms play in our society, and why many Americans see any new restrictive measures as something that will impede on their rights. But the fact remains that the vast majority of Americans, nearly 80 percent, believe that we should have universal background checks and that assault-style weapons, often used in mass shootings, should be banned. A very small percentage of Americans think that guns should be banned altogether.

Rural Minds Executive Director Chuck Strand appeared on the Mental Health Matters Podcast with host Andra Hollenbeck. The podcast is offered in partnership with NAMI-Southern Oregon (NAMI: National Alliance on Mental Illness).

The two discuss the mental health challenges facing rural Americans, the barriers to access to mental healthcare in rural areas, and addressing the stigma surrounding mental illness.

Throughout history, humans’ ability to rely on one another has been crucial to survival. Despite modern developments that help individuals live with minimal human engagement, the human need to connect remains.

However, in many parts of America, a trend toward isolation is emerging. Over the past two decades, people are spending more time alone and less time engaging with others in person, according to data from the Office of the U.S. Surgeon General. One segment of Americans at particular risk of social isolation, loneliness and their negative impacts are select populations who live in rural areas.

Pennsylvania Grange President Matt Espenshade and Rural Minds Founder & Chairman Jeff Winton were interviewed by host Roger Hearing on BBC World Service’s World Business Report on Friday, September 19.

In addition to his role with the Grange, Matt operates Evergreen-Valley Farm in Elizabethtown, PA, along with his father, Harvey. Together they manage a 70-cow dairy herd and farm 250 acres, growing corn and forage crops.

Jeff owns, operates, and farms Wall Street Dairy, LLC, a functioning dairy farm in Mayville, NY.

A new survey of residents in rural parts of the United States, including rural Pennsylvania, shows many face challenges in accessing mental health care and treatment.

The data from Russell Research was conducted on behalf of Rural Minds, a national nonprofit organization focused on advocating for rural mental health equity. The survey questioned 1,500 people living in a rural county in either Pennsylvania, North Carolina or Florida about the barriers they face in accessing treatment and attitudes about efforts to increase access to care. Findings based on interviews with 500 Pennsylvania residents show:

– Eighty-one percent of Pennsylvania respondents have one or more barriers to accessing health care and mental health treatments, including high out-of-pocket costs, a shortage of physicians, psychiatrists and psychologists, poor to nonexistent internet service, long distances to medical services; self-imposed barriers include a cultural reluctance to ask for help, a lack of trust, and isolation.

Jeff Winton was on a national radio tour this spring raising awareness about US farmers’ declining mental health when he had a startling realization. As he described to a series of radio hosts from Iowa to Texas the sense of isolation and despondency increasingly affecting the agricultural workforce, he noticed with a jolt that he was describing himself.

In the U.S., 23% of adults—nearly 60 million Americans—reported experiencing a mental illness in the past year, yet over half (54.7%) did not receive treatment (1, 2). Complex environmental and social factors contribute to this shortfall, and certain communities experience inequitable impacts (3). This includes the 20% of Americans living in rural areas, who often face gaping disparities in mental healthcare access stemming from a milieu of infrastructural and sociocultural factors (4–6). Sixty-five percent and 47% of rural counties lack a resident psychiatrist and psychologist, respectively, compared to 27% and 19% of metropolitan counties (7). Securing transportation to this physically distant care may be especially burdensome for those who lack public transit or depend on others for their transportation (8). Even telemedicine remains unfeasible for some rural areas, where broadband may be limited or entirely unavailable (9–12).

MAYVILLE — Rural Minds, a local nonprofit focused on mental health in rural America, is set to be featured on a documentary episode of Roadtrip Nation that will air on public broadcasting stations in 2026. 

The episode was filmed at Wall Street Dairy in Mayville at the beginning of August, focusing on life on the farm, the work of Rural Minds, and life in rural America. Founder and Chairman of Rural Minds, Jeff Winton, said that the episode may also air on PBS, but everything remains up in the air for PBS at the moment.

A national nonprofit is launching a program to help rural youths talk with each other about mental health struggles.

Rural Minds will pilot the Rural Youth Mental Wellness program starting in October in New York and Pennsylvania.

It is expected to roll out nationwide in fall 2026.

The program will focus on the particular challenges of young people who live in rural areas.

Jeff Winton, founder and CEO of Rural Minds, a national nonprofit organization headquartered in Chautauqua County that focuses on mental health equity for the 46 million people who live in rural America, noted that it is not just the weather this year that has been causing stress for farmers, but a lot of what is going on in the world as well. He added that the amount of extreme weather conditions seen across the country this year are not helping the matter either.

Rural Minds, a nonprofit advocating for better mental health services in farm country, is backing legislation it says will boost its mission.

The bipartisan EPIC Act — Ensuring Pathways to Innovative Cures — aims to reduce barriers to incentives for developing drugs people in rural communities can readily access.

Communities are only as healthy as their members.

During the recent Farm Foundation Forum, Reviving Rural: Agriculture as the Heartbeat of Healthy Communities, a conversation about reviving rural health, prosperity and resilience was discussed by a slate of panelists.

Rural roots often grow deep—in the communities that serve them—and the people that call them home. 

The Farm Foundation Forum, Reviving Rural: Agriculture as the Heartbeat of Healthy Communities, was held recently online, by the Farm Foundation and the American Farmland Trust to help have the needed conversation of protecting and enhancing agriculture, which can help the revival of rural health, prosperity and resilience.  

“We’re not being extremist when we say that there is a mental health crisis in rural America,” said Don Hannaford, vice president of public policy at Rural Minds, a nonprofit advocating for rural mental health equity.

Rural Minds Founder and Chairman Jeff Winton recently spoke on a webinar hosted by Farm Foundation, titled Farm Foundation Forum: Reviving Rural — Agriculture as the Heartbeat of Healthy Communities In partnership with American Farmland Trust.

(Family Features) Rural America is experiencing a mental health emergency. For residents of rural communities, there is evidence of higher rates of mental illness compared to those in urban communities. Suicide rates are 64-68% higher in rural communities compared to urban areas, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Yet people who live in rural areas are less likely to access mental health services.

Rural Americans are some of the most tenacious and giving individuals on the planet. While many of us identify as farmers and ranchers on a level far exceeding that of many “normal” careers, that devotion can come at a mental cost when managing the challenges associated with feeding the world.

MAYVILLE, N.Y. — Mental health nonprofit Rural Minds announced that the video “Closing the Mental Health Gap Among Rural Youth in the US,” produced in partnership with Pfizer, the National Grange, and USA TODAY, was recognized at the 46th Annual Telly Awards with three awards for excellence in branded content.

Senators continue working on President Trump’s “Big, Beautiful Bill” and ways to cut government spending. There is concern that Medicare, Medicaid, and the Affordable Care Act could all become targets.

The group “Rural Minds” warns that cutbacks would hit farm country the hardest.

“We’ve got to start looking at mental health differently than what we have done for generations, especially in rural areas,” says Jeff Winton a multigenerational dairy farmer from New York. “Our mission is to serve as the informed voice for mental health in rural America and to provide mental health information and resources. We are working to confront mental health challenges in rural communities and the stigma that surrounds mental illness.”