Fifty minute hours don't work. As part of the trust building process the worker must be able to comfortably spend two hours for an assessment if necessary. Scheduling flexibility for follow-up sessions is very important to most farm families. Sessions may occasionally run long. Mental health centers wishing to connect with the farming community should work at developing a relationship with the Farm Bureau, Cooperative Extension, and other farm groups.
Credibility is the name of the game in reaching farmers.
Farm groups can open or close their community to service providers. Another tip to gaining credibility is to recruit volunteers, not for direct service but to help spread the word about the service. One third of the referrals resulting in open cases for the Farm Resource Center come from volunteers. Everything I have suggested are bullet points in the FRC model of service delivery. FRC is accredited by the National Association on Accreditation of Programs for Families and Children, Inc., and offers outreach mental health crisis intervention services currently in three states.