AgWellness Episode 5: Interview with Tasha Howard
Josh Dallin 00:09
Hello, everyone, and welcome to our episode five of our AgWellness Podcast. I'm Josh Dallin along with my cohost, Jake Hadfield. And we're excited to introduce Tasha Howard as our guest today. Tasha is an extension director and the lead for the Utah Western Regional Agricultural Stress Assistance Program. Tasha is also a vital member of our AgWellness team. In fact, she has been with us from the very beginning, and has been one of the key content experts since we have developed the program.
We know Tasha has valuable information to share with us in this interview today. And we are also thrilled to be introducing her as a cohost for future episodes of the AgWellness podcast. So we look forward to having her join us as we move forward. And we're really excited to learn more about Tasha, personally and professionally as we enter into this episode.
Jake Hadfield 01:08
So Tasha, just to get started, can you just tell us a little bit about yourself where you're from and kind of about your work?
Tasha Howard 01:15
Yeah, I'm happy to be here. Thank you guys for asking me to help out. And I look forward to participating in future episodes. And my name is Tasha Howard. I'm a USU, extension assistant professor here in Juab County. So I work in Nephi and I'm also the county director for that office. And I'm originally from Las Vegas, so not very ag-based at all, big city girl, and who wanted the more rural life. And so I moved to Utah to get my bachelor's in family, consumer and human development from Utah State, and then continued on there to get my Master's in family and human development. And I've been working in extension, pretty much most of my life, my dad is actually an extension administrator in the state of Nevada. And so I grew up going into programs, I love extension, love what it does. And I knew that this was the perfect career fit for me. And so that's what I went to school for. And then right out of school, I was hired to work here in Juab County. And I just celebrated my first year anniversary with my husband Jordan, and, and we have a little puppy dog named Odin, who keeps us quite entertained. And in our free time, we like to hang out in the Utah mountains, and do whatever you know, outside that we can do and and we really enjoy shooting actually is one of our pastimes.
Josh Dallin 02:30
Great. I'm even learning things about you. And I've known you for a long time. This is wonderful. Tasha, we wanted to take a moment to have you share with our listeners what the role is of a home and community extension agent. Most of our ag producers are familiar with the agricultural agents and the horticultural agents and those those different agents that have more of an ag focus. But please expand and share with us what what our home and community agent faculty do.
Tasha Howard 03:02
Yeah, I'd love to do that there are... It's hard to narrow down what we do, because there's so many different areas. And we actually just recently, in the past couple years change the name of the department from Family and Consumer Sciences, to home and community, because the areas of expertise and the topic areas across the state have just broadened. And so I would say the role of the home and community extension faculty member is to really work through some of those issues that happen in the home and in the community. And we have people who are expertise in family relationships, you might be familiar with Dr. Dave, he's the home and community extension specialist in family relationships. And he gives wonderful tips on on family relationships, how you can and work with your children and improve your relationship with your spouse. And we have people who do that across the state and the home and community department. We also have a big focus on food preservation.
And there's you know, if you've ever wanted to learn how to can, how to freeze dry, how to dehydrate all of that we have people across the state who can teach you how to do that. And there's actually a food preservation course that you can go through so you can become a master food preserver, which I think is really cool. And we have people who work in the create better health program, which is our program that teaches low income families how to use their benefits in the best way possible to still make healthy choices and to get active and to learn how to do some of those basic cooking skills. And there's some people up in the in the northern part of the state. I think actually in your county Josh, we're working on some diabetes education programs and so they're teaching specific to diabetes, how you can still cook good food that that tastes good but it's also healthy and good to make sure that it's not detrimental.
Tasha Howard 04:45
And then we have people who work in the community aspect of it. So we have the master remote work certificate, which has become really popular since the COVID 19 pandemic. And but we have faculty who work with that and who work in community development and how they can build up partnerships among the community. And then of course, we have finance education with the Utah money mom program. And then empowering financial wellness, I just went to training on how to work through the power pay program, and the to reduce your debt and pay off your debt in the fastest way in the best way possible. And, and then we have mental health. So I'm sure I'm missing something. But there is a whole bunch of different programs across the state that home and community are involved in. And again, I think it just comes back to this the same thing with the agricultural agents, we just want to be able to help the community by bringing that research based information to the public, and our realm. It's more of that home and community, the finance the food, the relationship aspect side of it. And but we still do the same thing. We work with local community members to just bring that education to them in the easiest and the fastest and the best way possible so that they can have happy life.
Jake Hadfield 05:55
Perfect. Tasha, that was a great highlight. And I think that's, you know, sometimes we say extensions, a hidden treasure that people don't know about, you know, and one of the things is, is really, we have so diverse programs. I mean, we're trying to help the community any way we can. And I think you highlighted that really well. So thank you. Now, many of you may remember when we first introduced this, we talked about, you know, Josh, originally, he had some ranchers that need were seeking out mental health, and they were wanting more curriculum and whatnot. And so actually talk Josh reached out to Tasha to bring that here Tosh and Paige Wray, to have our two extension faculty here. So anyway, with that,Tasha, can you tell us a little bit about how you first got involved with mental health?
Tasha Howard 06:43
Yeah, it's it's kind of a weird little roundabout way that how I became involved in it, because I, when I graduated, like I said, it was family and human development. And so I thought for sure that I would be teaching relationship education, and that that was just going to be my bread and butter was this relationship education aspect of it. Um, and within the first few months of working for extension, I went to a mental health training and the training taught a program or curriculum that's really good, really well known. And I went to that, and I sat there, and I was just thinking through mental health and how it's affected my life, how it's affected the people around me, and I thought, you know, this, this is something that's needed. And it still does relate back to family relationships. And but I just kind of sat in that class and was like, Okay, I think I'm gonna run with this and see how this goes and see if my community needs it, see if people across the state are willing to come to these classes. And, and so that's how I first got started. And then you could just see, every time that I taught a class, I could just feel that people were wanting more, they were wanting more more information that was relevant to their specific life situation, but they were wanting more experiences where they could continue to learn about mental health. And because it's a huge issue in today's world, you know, 20 years ago, mental health was not even something that was talked about. And now it's, it's just this issue where people are like, I, I'm either struggling and I don't know where to go, or I know somebody who's struggling, and I don't know how to get them the help. And so that's where I really became passionate about mental health and, and getting involved in, in lots of different programs. And then the development of this farm and ranch stress assistance kind of came out of all of that. And so that was just really cool.
Josh Dallin 08:30
I love that and, and you're definitely the right person for the job, you have a lot of great resources, and you've been able to adapt those to so many different scenarios. And I think that you know it from from my perspective and Jake's perspective, it's such a good thing to know that we've got a team member in Tasha to be able to help us as we navigate our way through these types of things. Tasha, you've, you've talked about it just a little bit. But I wondered if you could maybe help our listeners understand that there is an actual initiative through extension and other programs about mental health? Could you could you tell us a little bit about that extension, Mental Health Initiative and its purpose and how that functions through the extension program? And how that how that can be a benefit to our to our listeners as well.
Tasha Howard 09:28
Yeah, there, you know, extension, one of the things that we get to do is we get to look at the needs of the community, we get to look at the needs across the state. And we get to look at the needs that are the president of the university has also addressed and we try our best to fill those needs. And so this this Mental Health Initiative, and I'll address it the health and wellness workgroup, which is part of that they all came about by those needs and the initiative of the university president kind of coming together, and we know with COVID-19 and the pandemic Even before that, people were struggling, like I said, to find those mental health resources and, and find help for themselves and help for other people, and there was a lot of extension faculty across the state who were getting questions, and even Josh himself kind of how this program started with his involvement in is just a question of, hey, I have I have somebody who's struggling, how do I get help? And so that's kind of what the initiative goal is, is to not only provide information, but to collaborate with people across the state, so that it's a group effort instead of, you know, one person in your county comes to you and asks you a question. You're like, oh, I don't even know where to go. Let me kind of research it out myself, those faculty, those, those, whether it's an ag agent, or home and community, they can come to this mental health initiative work group, and they can work through it. And and that's part of the overall health and wellness work group, which has different branches and physical health and nutrition. And the the Heart Initiative, which is substance use, and all those different areas that kind of tie in together into this big umbrella of health and wellness. And but that's that's kind of how it came about. And really, the goal of the Mental Health Initiative is just to collaborate across the state, and with faculty and staff and community members and partnerships, and then to really be that resource. So people aren't lost when they have a question about mental health, and they have a place they can go to.
Jake Hadfield 11:25
That's perfect. And honestly, that's something that's needed because me, me and Josh, coming in as agriculture agents, like we mentioned, reaching out was a huge part for us to be able to get the help we needed. Because, I mean, on our backgrounds, we're looking at it from a completely ag perspective side, we, we didn't have that mental health, but to be able to kind of work together and make that work. It was awesome. So that's perfect. Now you mentioned just barely the farm and ranch stress assistance network. And so I kind of wanted to ask you, how did you get started with that? And what kind of are the project goals for that piece specifically?
Tasha Howard 12:01
Yeah, I love this question. I think that this is kind of the the bread and butter, what ag wellness is, and why we even have a podcast that talks about mental health. And so it's funny to think about this little city girl from Las Vegas, now working with producers across the state of Utah, to teach mental health. And so it really got started, I would say the very first thing is, with my colleague, Paige Wray, we taught a class on mental health down in the county that she's over in San Juan County. And, and as we were there, we we could hear people, just the way that they were talking about mental health and the way that the course was set up, they didn't match up, you know, we were talking about, well, you can call 911, it feels like it's too big for you, and somebody, you know, said that they are suicidal, and, the people in that class just kind of looked at us, and we're like, that's not gonna work here. And we're like, you can go to therapy, and you can do all these things. And that those are good things. Don't get me wrong. But when we were teaching that to this, this group of people in rural Utah, they just kind of looked at us like, you guys are nuts. That's not how this life works down here, we can't just do that it's not the same. Also, if anybody even says that, like the reaction to it is going to be very different than what you're saying and expecting us to view with this reaction. And so we started kind of brainstorming different ways that we could think about mental health, different ways that we could talk about mental health to fit these counties, specifically, in the rural parts of Utah. And, you know, one of the ways that we thought about it was just adapting the curriculum that was already there. But because of the strict requirements of that, we couldn't really just do that. And they did have some facts that were specific to rural areas. And so at the same time that all of this was happening, there was a whole bunch of other stuff happening across the state. And Dr. Ty Aller, who is the course developer, he's, you know, he gives the resources at the end of the podcast, and he's on our project as well. He had been teaching this class called Mental Health Awareness and Advocacy. And so he'd been teaching that to students on USU campus, I actually went through the course myself, and, and he was looking for a way to get out into the community, specifically more into those places where you can't just go to a therapist within an hour, you know, you can't just like get in your car, five minutes, I'm at my therapist office. Um, and then so that was one part of it. And then the other part of it was what was happening up in Box Elder County with the questions that were coming in to Josh, and the concerns that were happening up there with the producers. And so it was almost like the stars aligned in a perfect way for us to receive a grant funding that kind of brought this whole team together to really work on and figure out a way that we could not only teach mental health education across the state of Utah, but teach it in a way to the people who are really struggling that was in their language. Because I know I mean, if I sit up there as a city girl in class and talk about farmers and tractors and all that, I just sound like I'm speaking a language that isn't my own because it isn't, you know, but if we can work with somebody who's in the agricultural field, and help them learn the language of mental health, they're going to teach it in their own language, they're going to talk about it in their own language. And that is way more effective in getting the literacy across, getting that information across, than it is somebody who's outside of that world coming in and saying, "This is what you need to do." And so all of that all the stars align, and I think all of those kind of three projects came together at the same time, we were able to receive funding through the western region, assistance, stress Assistance Network program, to create this program here in Utah. And it just kind of all came together. And I think that that's the magic of it is, at the same time that I was looking at my own needs in my county and my community and across the state, Josh was getting needs in his county and his community, Ty was seeing a need and in his role and his assignment, and we were able to just bring everybody together who's all part of this team to, to make something happen and, and kind of use that, you know, I'm an expertise in the mental health, Ty ias an expert in mental health, he's a therapist, but Josh, and you, you guys are the experts in ag. And so being able to have kind of this whole idea of partnering and working versus just some stranger coming in and talking the language of mental health, it just, it makes it more effective, and it makes it more personal. And I think that's the real important key here is because of the people that we have on this team, because we're able to receive this funding and work through this project, we're able to talk about mental health in a more personal way, in a more relatable way, where the message can really get to the people who need it the most.
Josh Dallin 16:52
Amazing, and it is amazing how that all really kind of came together. Because it it really, it really did. And, and in fact, you know, from that point, now, looking back to 2019 meeting, to now sitting here in 2022. And seeing the things that have that have the fruits, I guess, that have been produced from this, this collaboration is pretty incredible, from going to having minimal resources and minimal types of places to point people, you know, in the right direction, now we've got things that that people can start to utilize that can bless and help them themselves as well as their loved ones. And, and it is it is very incredible. And we are appreciative to you for being that, that hub of all those different spokes to be able to make all that work. Um, I'm excited to ask you this question because I, even though we have come a long way, there's still so much more to do. And so my question is, what are some of the bigger picture things that you'd like to see happen for mental health in Utah, or that you know, are happening are going to happen that maybe our listeners haven't been made aware of yet, from your perspective of where you're sitting right now?
Tasha Howard 18:20
Um, this is also a great question because there's, you know, you dream, this dream, and you hope that you can really reach people and help improve their lives. And, and I think one of the biggest things, and we are excited that the courses are coming out, they should be finished by the end of this week, we should have them on our website, and is to train faculty and staff. You know, we've talked about the difference between home and community versus an ag agent, what those look like and how we can work together? Well, this is a huge aspect of that is this course, it's called Mental Health Awareness and Advocacy for AG. And it's taking that course that Dr. Aller was teaching on campus, and, and it's adapting it for agriculture, those who work with agricultural producers, you know, so it could be it could be a family member. But the course is more geared towards ag agents across the state and the nation. It's geared towards people who work with lending agencies, and Farm Bureau, those who are out in the fields kind of helping, helping farmers, helping producers out. And, and the course teaches how to recognize signs and symptoms of somebody who may be struggling, how to locate those high quality resources within your community, and then how to connect that person to those resources. And that's huge because I mean, you can see, if you haven't listened to the first couple episodes of this podcast series, you can go back and listen to Josh and Jordan and their story about you know, you may not think that it's necessary or that'll ever come across your desk or across your, you know, when you're out talking to somebody, but it does, and so that's something I'm really excited about. And then the second thing is just, you know, there are so many people in Utah who are currently struggling. And I was looking at a statistic today from the National Alliance on Mental health or mental illnesses, NAMI and the the, the data that came out of that, so that there's 550,000 Utahns, who have been diagnosed with a mental illness, which is twice the population of Salt Lake City. I think that's what the the statistic was, I might be wrong on that. But there's still there's so many people who are struggling. But there's not that many services to be able to help them there are services and hopefully, in the future, we'll be able to talk about some other partnerships where I know there is a grant in the works with UDAF, we've received some funding to be able to help make it easier for producers in their families to to receive that help. But there's so many people who are struggling, who can't get to the services, who are who maybe don't necessarily need the same support that they've you know, that that formal support, they might just need a friend, they might just need somebody to talk to them, they might just need somebody who can be that connector and say, Hey, seems like you're struggling. Let's see what we can do to find the right resources for you to get help. And, and we can't get to that point, if we don't have people who are recognizing and understanding and the conversations that happen, how to solve that issue. And again, with that statistic, I think it's said that in 2021, over 40%, of Utahns, felt symptoms of depression and anxiety. But only 26.4 of those people received help, or were able to receive help. So we can see that there's a disparity there. And, and that's really one of the things that I'd like to see moving forward is just, you know, creating this, I mean, that's what the grants theme is, right and network, creating this network of people who if you have a conversation with somebody, you can, and you find that maybe they're struggling with their mental health, whether you think it's an illness or just something that's harmful to them, but we can, we can bring those resources to them, we can be that connector, we can help them out. And so I'd like to see see that. And then, just from my perspective, and extension, you know, this is one example of a model of where home and community faculty member was able to partner with some ag faculty members and a beautiful thing came out of it that's really been able to help people. Well, there are so many other programs across the state, I've listed some of them, there's power pay, there's the empowering financial wellness, there's some cooking classes, there's food preservation, how can we take this same model, and transfer it over into other programs? Because you can reach an audience that I don't always reach. But my programs may be something that your audience needs. And so how can we take this model and adapted so that it's for another program for another program and continuing that momentum so that it can save lives in different ways? Because maybe you're struggling with your relationship? And you need some relationship education? Well, guess what, we have programs that can help with that. But we might not have the ability to get there. And so just being able to kind of build this model out a little bit more so that there is those partnerships, and it's not just will you deal with those guys, and I'll deal with these guys. And that's what it will be, right. But it can be, let's work together. Because we're all working with Utahns. We're all working with these families. And we can do it in a way that that makes it so that extension really can not be that hidden secret anymore. But it can be the thing that gets families through a financial struggle, whether that's a producer family, or just a family in the community who is struggling, and that can, you know, move, move things forward that way. So that's kind of a long answer to great question. But that's that's what I see going forward. That's, that's what I'd like to see happen.
Josh Dallin 23:59
Tasha, we are so grateful for you spending the time with us today. And it's clear the passion that exudes from you about these topics. And again, you know, I would like to personally thank you for literally being the resource and, and pioneer of these efforts. Without your expertise, and without your guidance, the things which we've been able to accomplish would, would not be and you know, personally, as you have mentioned on the earlier episodes, you know, without Tasha and the training that I received, I think that I would be in a very different scenario with my family, with my brother. And so personally, I'm very grateful to her and I know that she has blessed the lives of many people, like my own, because of her talents and her and her skill set. So thank you so much. And as Tasha mentioned, we encourage everybody to really dive in and take advantage of what our home and community faculty have to offer. Because there are so many things that can help to better your business, your home life, your family that they have to offer. And we're just very grateful to our colleagues in our home and community department for all of the things that they bring to the table. And we look forward to continuing to work with Tasha very closely to make sure that these these things that she just talked about these bigger picture, things become a reality. We also wanted to give a quick shout out to Dr. Alex Schiwal for her work behind the scenes, she is the one that is putting together, the editing and all of the things that make our podcast amazing. And now that we're just wrapping up our fifth episode, we want to make sure to give her the credit that is so well deserved. She is constantly behind the scenes helping us to come up with platforms and editing and production. And anyway, we want to thank her as we've before we end our series today our episode today to make sure that that she deserves or gets the credit that she so well deserves. We thank everybody so much for joining us for episode five of our AgWellness podcast and we look forward to you joining us for our episode six we have some exciting guests that we have in the hopper for our next few episodes. You're not going to want to miss them. Thank you so much and we will see you next time.
Thanks for listening to this episode of the Ag Wellness podcast. Please subscribe, wherever you get your podcasts, visit our website at farmtress.us, and connect with us on social media at Ag Wellness Utah.
If you are experiencing stress, mental health concerns, or suicidal thoughts, or if you know someone who is, please contact these resources. As always, if it is an emergency, dial 911.
Suicide Prevention Lifeline 1-800-273-8255 Crisis Text Line Text HOME to 741741
Crisis Response Network 1-800-203-CARE (2273)
SafeUT 833-372-3388 or download their app to use the chat feature
If you need help finding a mental health provider, here are some ways to get started:
Contact the person’s health insurance provider and ask about mental health professionals that are within the network.
Psychology Today Service Finder: On this website, you can search for therapists, psychiatrists, treatment centers and support groups in your area. www.psychologytoday.com/us
Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA)
• Here, you can find general information about mental health services in your area.
• findtreatment.samhsa.gov/
Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA)
• At this website, you can find health centers that offer more affordable options for people that do not have health insurance.
• https://findahealthcenter.hrsa.gov/
U.S. Department of Health and Human Services
• This website can help if you have questions about insurance coverage for mental health.
• https://www.hhs.gov/programs/topic-sites/mental-health-parity/mental-health-and-addiction-insurance-help/index.html
Thanks for listening to the Ag Wellness podcast – be well!