Ranching in the West:Is it Hazardous to your Health?

Randy R. Weigel, Ph.D.Associate Professor & Extension Specialist

Department of Family & Consumer SciencesUniversity of Wyoming

Behavioral Health

A more encompassing term than mentalhealth and includes conditions of stress and anxiety, self-destructive behavior, addiction, adjustment disorders, and/or interpersonal relationship difficulties.

Let’s go westIt’s our ticket out of hereYeah we can disappearLet’s go westAnd that painted sky was made for usIt’s everything we ever dreamed ofLet’s go west.

Brooks & Dunn, Let’s Go West

The spaces between ranches, andbetween ranches and the highway, andmost of all between an individualranch and its nearest city, county seat,or even town, can be large indeed.

Starrs, P. (1998)

Let the cowboy ride: Cattle ranching in the American West.

“Geo-conflicts”

Conflicts over the natural resourcesand geography of the West.

“The struggle to secure ample high-qualitywater has fostered mistrust, mis-understanding and has created disharmony.Water conflicts have driven wedges between:neighbors, states, nations, cultures.”

Ingram, H. (1998).Place humanists at the head gatesReopening the American West

“I told the Elko County commissioners, ‘The days are gone when you’ll come in here and pound on the district ranger’s table and he’ll piss in his pants and you’ll get your way.’”

Jim Nelson, supervisor Toiyabe & Humboldt National Forests, Nevada

“We are outraged and demand accountabilityof the actions taken by the U.S. Fish andWildlife Service surrounding the incident,”(FWS worker with wolves on private property)

Park County CommissionersPark County (Cody), Wyoming

Life at the Edge

“The lives of urban and rural dwellers arebecoming increasingly intertwined, and oftentangled. This entanglement can be found atthe urban wildland interface.”

Huntsinger & Hopkins (1996).Viewpoint: Sustaining rangeland landscapes: Asocial and ecological process.Journal of Range Management

“Kent Knudson picked up a rifle andopened fire, defending his 40 acres inArizona, and got handcuffed and hauled to jail.”

High Country NewsMarch 1, 2004vol. 36, no. 4

Frontier Rural Areas

Distinguished by low population densityand great isolation, comprised of fewer than 7 residents per square mile.

Cairlo et al. (1996)

Focusing on “frontier”: Isolated rural America.

Ranch Preservationism

A term that describes an attitude that being a rancher leads to a higher well-being than other methods of making a living.

“What’s it going to take – me sitting onmy front porch shooting the next son of a bitch that tells me when I can and can’t move my cows?”

New Mexico RancherHigh Country Newsretrieved, 2/4/2004 from:http://www.hcn.org/

“The cowboy is in many minds today—as he was in thoseof Remington and Wister—laconic, chivalric, physicallyattractive, adroit, violent, romantic and lonesome. Thatmythic image may have very little in common with thereal cowboy of today, or even with history, but it persistsby popular demand.”

Hassrick, P. (1993-94).The Wyoming cowboy’s evolving image.Wyoming Annals, 65(4), 8-9.

Socialization of the Cowboy

Beliefs about how men ought to behaveare constructed at many levels insociety and in the minds of men.

* “no sissy stuff”* “ the big wheel”* “ the sturdy oak”* “ give `em hell”

Male Approach to Counseling

traditional approach to counselingvs.

traditional male socialization

Of the 5276 suicides to white males in The mountain states, 3653 (70%) of these suicides were committed by firearm.

Kaplan, M., & Geling, O. (1998).Firearm suicides and homicides in the United States:Regional variations and patterns of gun ownership. Social Science & Medicine 46(9), 1227-1333.

In Wyoming, suicide is the second leadingcause of death in young people aged 15-24.Of the sixteen suicides reported in 2001,twelve were by firearms.

State of Wyoming Department of Health (2003)

NOTE: Rankings in red indicate states ranked in the top 10 for that year. Rankings in blue represent states with rates at or below the

national rate for the year. Rankings in black indicate states with rates above the national rate for the year but not in the top 10.

State / [Region] 1990 1991 1992 1993 1994 1995 1996 1997 1998 1999 2000

Nevada [M] 01 01 01 01 01 01 01 01 01 01 02

Wyoming [M] 06 03 04 02 02 06T 05 04 03 02 05

Alaska [P] 25T 24 09 09 03 06T 02T 02 02 06 01

Arizona [M] 04T 05 06 03T 04 03 08 08 05 05 06

Montana [M] 02 02 03 03T 05 02 02T 03 04 03 04

New Mexico [M] 04T 04 02 05 06 04 04 05T 06 04 03

Idaho [M] 03 09 08 06 07 08 12 05T 08 08 16T

Colorado [M] 07 06 05 07 08 05 06 10 12 10T 07T

Oregon [P] 09 11 07 12 09 09 09 09 07 09 07T

Utah [M] 10 07T 12 16 10 13 13 12 09 15T 10

State Rankings on Suicide, 1990-2000

http://mypage.iusb.edu/~jmcintos/SuicideStates.html

Why the West’s Soaring Suicide Rate?

Five factors common to the Mountain states:- loss of family ties- availability of firearms- lack of behavioral health- geography- pregnancy habits?

Briggs, B. (Aug. 27, 2000) Isolation, access to guns tied to West’s soaring rateThe Sunday Denver Post

Mothers of suicide victims:

• received less prenatal care• more likely to smoke and drink during pregnancy• higher level of chronic disease during pregnancy

Salk, L. et al. (1985).Relationship of maternal and perinatalconditions to eventual adolescent suicide.The Lancet, March, (624-627).

Changing Fabric of Rural Life

• Fewer ranchers and farmers• Reduced support service “safety net”• A growing global economy• Individualistic political climate• Boom or bust economy

Changing Fabric of Rural Life (cont.)

• Lack of primary care providers• Urban/rural mental illness• Higher levels of depression, suicide, abuse in

ag. populations• Reduced concern for plight of agriculture• Changing “Agri – culture”

Census Count of Farms:

1978 to 1997

17,5

72

16,1

83 17,4

7620

,956

27,7

17

1978 1982 1987 1992 1997

2,25

7,77

5

2,24

0,97

6

2,08

7,75

9

1,92

5,30

0

1,91

1,85

9

1978 1982 1987 1992 1997

Hispanic Operators All Operators

Summary: Obstacles to Behavioral (mental) HealthCare in the Rockies (frontier).

• Shortage of health professionals• Staff turnover• Lack of choice of provider• High rates of under/un-insured• Cultural barriers• Lack of confidentiality• Distance

Corrine, J. (2003)Frontier communities: Leading the way with innovativeapproaches to behavioral health

“In many areas of the rural West, the development of specialized health services is less economically feasible. A low population base and corresponding weak economic base coupled with vast distances and isolation mean that specialized mental health services will seldom be locally available to rural/frontier areas.”

Source: Frontier Mental Health Strategies. Retrieved: November 3, 2003http://wiche.edu/MentalHealth/Frontier/letter6.html

Frontier Behavioral Health Delivery Strategies:

• Integration• Outreach• Empowerment• Connection

Source: Frontier Mental Health Strategies. Retrieved: November 3, 2003http://wiche.edu/MentalHealth/Frontier/letter6.html

Rural Family Support “Networks”

• Hotlines: Kansas Rural Family HelplineSaskatchewan Farm Stress Line

• Intervention/Referral: Nebraska Rural Response LineFarm Resource Center (Illinois)

• Support Groups: Women in Ag; W.I.F.E.; Women in Blue Jeans

• Mediation: Coalition of Agricultural Mediation • Education: Cooperative Extension; consultants;

Trade Magazines• Outreach: Sowing the Seeds of Hope (Midwest)

Advocacy on Behalf of Ranchers &Farmers and their Families:

• Lobbying for increased behavioral health supportfor agricultural and rural areas

• Training of health providers and others whowork with ranchers and farmers

• Changing attitudes of ranchers and farmerstoward seeking help

“Going for help beats thehell out of the hell the family goes through aftera family member commitssuicide or homicide.”

Robert J. Fetsch Family Therapist

Wyoming’s greatest natural resource is not the coalin the Powder River Basin, the natural gas in oursedimentary formations, the oil in the Big Horn Basin or the trona in the Green River Basin. It is not the pure water of our streams, the strong grass on our prairies or the stunning views of our mountains. Wyoming’s greatest natural resource is our people. Properly providing for their good physical and mental health is essential to the future of our state.

Stroock, T. ( March 27, 2003)Need a handle on health careCasper Star and Tribune