@@MerelyFlowers Most likely Texaco Mike will harness the heat to generate electricity. Problem is Chevron owns Texaco once Chevron find out, they will convert the station to Chevron and Texaco Mike will retire and move to Florida.
One distinction, farmers are not farm workers. Farmers are the ownership, workers are the labor. Farm workers do have a suicide epidemic (because they're poor and do back-breaking labor in grueling conditions) but they don't get any benefits we push for because all the bills we pass only target farmers, who again are the OWNERSHIP. Farmers are way richer than the average US citizen, we give them enough help and pay them enough money in tax breaks and incentives. Stop helping farmers and start helping the workers who actually need help.
@PaxImbrium Agreed, though the mentality is still very much there-- especially in rural communities not far removed from when you could scratch by farming almost solely.
@@PaxImbrium Just said this; the "salt of the earth" farm owner and "family farm" farm owners are such myths, that people will fight to deny the fact that farm owners--overwhelmingly white--are not poor, often work outside the farm and keep the land because it's a fantastic source of government subsidies. Meanwhile, farm workers are lucky if they earn enough money to send to their families abroad.
Thanks for watching. As you all know, I love addressing real issues in health care with a healthy dose of comedy. I love producing videos that make you laugh but also hurt a little bit, that's what makes good satire. Mental health in rural communities is probably the most serious issue I've addressed in my content, which is why I wanted to take it on more directly here without snark or sarcasm. While I was researching and writing this skit, I learned a lot from this website. Check it out to learn more about the mental health crisis in rural communities. www.ruralhealthinfo.org/topics/farmer-mental-health
They won't deal with what hurts on the outside unless forced to, hiding what hurts on the inside is child's play compared to that. Lotta very good people don't understand it is okay to not be okay.
Can you also address the Cochrane Review that debunked the efficacy of face masks? I mean, if you are supposed to humble yourself, then get serious and apologize to those of us who were anti-mask from day one.
Thank you for raising it. It is a hidden epidemic in rural communities and the biggest health issue facing farm workers today. In my small community growing up, all the men and women (wives/daughters, isolated on the farm) were all on anti-depressant medication, and there was no mental health outreach at the time. Online counselling can often be problematic due to poor internet infrastructure too. No Texaco Mike available for dinner either. Thank you xx.
Rural Medicine Doctor is quickly becoming my favourite character in the DGCU (Dr. Glaucomflecken Cinematic Universe) and isn't planning to stop. He's just so weirdly relatable and likeable, and the issues you bring up in relation to rural medicine are something I've never heard about before, which makes it all the more impactful. Thanks for speaking up about these problems and bringing them to light, your ways to gently teach the audience something important through tiny comedic skits never stop to impress.
@@jeannineklem6574 Let's see... I have some change, a half-used ball point pen, and two rubber bands in my pockets. I am prepared to bet them all that Texaco Mike is Jonaton's third cousin twice removed, or something similar. The hyper-competence clues you right in.
I'm a therapist in an extremely rural, poverty-stricken area that has tons of substance use and generational trauma and...yeah. This is it. People will proudly show you the homemade stitches (made out of fence wire, yes I'm serious) they did to their arm but will suffer for decades with mental health issues; which then when I help their kids, sometimes makes the parents lash out because their own suffering is so raw. Some families are supportive, or the teenagers have been on the internet enough to know that it's not just them who needs help, so I'm not saying every family is bad because some really do want to help and know what's going on. But there's also MASSIVE stigma around stuff that's not just "garden-variety" depression or anxiety or bipolar; because those are easier to understand, and everyone has a bad day sometimes so they figure depression or anxiety are just like that x50, and there can be really sweet community support. But then one of my clients with schizophrenia was attacked because people's only exposure to schizophrenia was from the movie Split and other schizophrenia=serial killer movies. Another client's family was told to never come back to church because he was "a danger" because of his psychosis that made him scared of everything, while a client with DID was dumped at our crisis center because his girlfriend thought he was possessed. On the other hand, I have two clients who separately walk around town 24/7, one often screaming/praying while the other tries to 'help' by breaking into ambulances to 'assist' the EMTs (so many fun conversations with police and judges about why he shouldn't be thrown in prison); everyone can tell they're Not Well, and so they'll often get given food for free or treated with extra kindness in some stores, or me and other professionals who work with them will get updates on where they are or what they've done; we keep confidentiality very strictly, but when you're the only mental health place for three hours people know your client goes to you. So there's the horrible, but there's also deep community support in the same breath.
@@sanachanto Absolutely! I love it a lot, and I have my own mental health issues and my own therapist, so it feels good to be able to help people in ways I didn't get help while using my own recovery to help others. I get to do a lot of creative stuff that's beyond just talk therapy, so I really love the work and getting to be there for people :)
@@sanachanto Of course!! Even if you don't have complex trauma and a flyer-full of mental illnesses like I do, having your own therapist is so necessary for a job where you have to make hard choices and sit with people's pain for 40+ hours a week and, in many cases, know they're going back home to a horrible situation that'll happen all over again. It's absolutely a job you choose to do and adore, but just like any job it takes some kind of toll. So any therapist who has their own therapist is just walking the walk that they talk all day to clients about!
I used to think Texaco Mike was some medical term I wasn't familiar with. I just now realized it's just Mike who runs the local Texaco gas station, ferries people on his fan boat, and somehow came into possession of an MRI/CT combi-oven.
Yeah he was first introduced in a skit about prior authorizations, where a doctor with a patient needing a brain scan was told to go to a rural Texaco, knock on the door in the back, and ask for Mike.
@@jenniferharris1280 For me it wasn't the 40's but I was driving the tractor on my dad's lap starting at like 6 or 7 so he could use his hands to light cigarettes or do whatever. I'd manage the wheel and he'd take care of the pedals.
@@jenniferharris1280 I know a of a young man whose mother one told me “C knows how to start every piece of equipment on the farm” I think he was about 4 at the time, as he and my daughter hadn’t started kindergarten yet. My husband stopped out there for a farm call one day… C was “practicing backing up” on the 4 wheeler. Again, about age 4 By the time my oldest started high school, we called her my husband’s scrub nurse as she had been along on DA surgeries with her veterinarian father since she was quite young.
I live in rural PA. Can confirm, we all learn to drive some kind of equipment or truck by the time we’re 8 years old. I was driving my dad’s tractor to mow the lawn at 10
I hope you have a good time, and maybe even make hot chocolate, the fancy king using chocolate bars and whole milk over a stove and some marshmallows over the top. Every person that has encountered hardships deserves to treat themselves sometimes :)
On a serious note, as a psych resident that sees a decent amount of patients from a rural area, I really appreciate this video. On a less serious note, I demand to meet Texaco Mike in a future video.
I think it's important that we never directly *meet* Texaco Mike, but I wouldn't be averse to having a guy in a cowboy hat who doesn't show his face be in a skit.
I love how rural med acknowledges the farming community's struggles with mental health. The fields of medicine interacting are fun to watch but we still see the bleaker aspects of stuff.
My Jonathan now a med student is going into international medicine but I hope that when she's here in the states, she gets to know Texaco Mike and practice rural medicine in between flights, preferably in my state.
@@rangefinderz5135o you do NOT compel patients to receive treatment or drugs. You obviously are NOT in healthcare or you’re not in the USA. Edit: This is basic stuff!
My father is a large animal vet in a rural community. He passed out and landed in the ER and diagnosed with appendicitis. He was third on the list for surgery so he asked if he could go to work and come back when they were ready for him.
Well he was third in line. Big animal vets are so valued and needed. We lost one of our busiest big animal vets. He was so important to our community and our church that his funeral was held at our church and there were several thousands of people who gave their condolences. We miss him terribly.
My farmer grandfather just recently passed, so I'll tell you all a short story about him! My entire life that I knew him, he only had one leg. I didn't really learn why he only had the one left until a couple years ago! The story goes that he was working in the field driving a combine. I don't know exactly what happened, but somehow his boot lace got caught in the rotating machinery and his leg got ripped off at the knee. He used his radio equipment to contact my grandmother and ask for her to call him an ambulance. But he knew it would be a while before they got to him. He used his other boot lace to tourniquet his leg and kept combining until the paramedics showed up! That man had survived so many times where many would have died. He beat cancer three times! To those who don't know anyone in rural communities these rural videos seem quite exaggerated I'm sure, but they honestly aren't that far out! I also wanted to say that my gramps did receive mental health care through his life and honestly that fact has always made me feel more confident in receiving care for my own. It isn't weakness to need help. If a badass farmer who can keep working after having his leg ripped off, or could keep laughing at himself and the world when he was 80 years old halfway up a ladder when his leg lands on the ground 10' below, is okay talking about and receiving mental health care then it really proves it isn't about strength. Take care of your mental health friends. Doesn't matter where you live or work! Don't be afraid or think you aren't worthy of receiving care. Everyone could benefit from taking a proactive approach to mental health.
Your grandpa sounds like he was awesome guy. We need to start changing the way we view mental health help and recognize that it takes strength of a different kind for people to make that crucial move to ask for help or accept help. Your grandpa was strong in many ways.
I wasn’t even a farm kid, but grew up in rural Vermont. When I was thirteen I visited a friend’s uncles farm. It was haying time and they were short handed so they put me on a tractor and told me which pedals to push. Never mind the brakes; they don’t work. Just stop by downshifting. I was thirteen so I was fine with it. That’s just one illustration of why farms are death traps. My high school had a few kids with missing body parts or horrific scars. That uncle later lost his entire leg to a piece of equipment. Dr G makes it funny, but it’s funny because it’s true.
It wasn't just me, then - in a previous century, as a teenager home from university for the summer, my family had moved to a regional area, and the local farm manager was delighted: "Oh, another person, excellent, can you drive, oh, you can ride a motorcycle, well, the tractor runs pretty much on the same principles, gears and throttle and brakes, you'll be fine..." I was given a tutorial on how to drive an Iseki tractor that looked about the size of a jumbo jet, and told to plough straight. How I didn't destroy anything or kill anybody is a mystery.
My cousins grew up on a farm and their dad had built a dirt bike track on their property, they held a crazy dirt bike rally there every summer. My oldest cousin has a huge chunk of leg just straight up missing from his knee to his ankle from a dirt bike accident as a kid. It's pretty gnarly looking. Safety is barely thought about on farms.
Those are some Sir Terry Pratchett levels of wrapping serious issues in a comedic cloak that gets it through to the people who are not aware of said issues. Impressive!
My 6y/o grandpa got pulled over and driven back to his house. When his dad saw them, he asked "what'd he do wrong?" Cop: "He was driving a tractor, sir." Dad: "I know that, it's mine. What'd he do wrong?" After a minute of discussion, the cop admitted that my grandpa had been following traffic laws perfectly, lol! After the cop left, the dad told my grandpa to walk back to the tractor and finish what he asked him to do 😂
The tractor part had be laughing out loud :D Me and most of my family grew up in rural Germany and my stepfather once told me, that he was late for school and missed the schoolbus. So, he did as everyone would, took his uncles tractor, a speedy boi (John deer i think) and just drove himself to school. Naturaly he got grounded, even though be brought up the argument, that he returned the tractor in one pice :D The years onward, he stole several other tracors to meet his friends, highjacked a forklift, with wich he subsequential ran into a garage door and completly demolished it and the forklift. In his time in the army he manage to sink a training tank in a lake...and all of it, befor he was 18 and befor getting his license :D Now he is one of the best and safest and moste responsible drivers i know, never had a accident since the drowning of the tank :D
I am not surprised, he must be very careful not to mess himself the oportunnity to say, the last accident I had was sinking a tank in a lake :D Also, does it happen to be Eastern Germany? Because I've heard crazy stories about Czechoslovakian army and this sounds potentially related.
I'm from a rural area myself. Lots of small farms back then; hired help was out of the question. Lots of my schoolmates would drive a tractor during harvest time, and the parents would walk along and load the potatoes or rutabagas on the waggon. Sometimes the children were too small yet to reach the gas pedal, and the dad would place a brick on it... Gotta do what you gotta do, or lose the farm. 🤷
Amen. As a rural pharmacist, I'm often one of the only people my patients are comfortable opening up to. I speak their language, even if I'm half their age. This is a real thing and only by bringing awareness to the reality can we incrementally bring change to it. One of the closest hitting sketches I've seen. Good work.
I live in a midwest farming community, and these rural doctor skits are so true to life. I wasn't expecting to cry, but the serious part in the middle brought a tear to my eye. Poignantly accurate about the high incidence, and stigma. I also chuckled. "But... you're not wearing houndstooth, nor corduroy...!" And the emphasis on, "from the University...." Mwa! Perfect! The University is viewed with well-earned suspicion and derision in farm circles. One typical story: ... that time the vet med class came out on a field trip to the livestock farm, and the students couldn't tell which end of the ewe was the front end! Lol
I wouldn't say well-earned. Stubborn, insular farmers run the risk of using expensive and unsustainable practices that those with a University Degree in agriculture can avoid thanks to better knowledge. Derision towards those with higher education tend to come from the same type of people who votes for Trump and call others snowflakes and libtards. Not to mention tending to be sexist, homophobic, transphobic, and racist.
@@IkajoI opened this comment knowing there were gonna be buzzwords. MUH TWANSPHOBIA Never change, you dimwit, narcissistic urbanite academics. The dumbest experienced barely literate farmer outsmarts most of your AcAdemiC KnoWledGe
I love texaco mike's combination CT and MRI service. One tube, just send 'em through both in one shot. A true visionary. I've said it before, Dr G, you gotta let us meet this character!
As someone who lives in a rural area, thank you for your work. I know of a few rural EMTs who have had to give up the job because of things they’ve seen. Yes, urban EMS also sees some horrific stuff, but how often does that urban EMS person personally know their patient? Or the patient’s parents, grandparents, siblings etc.
I hope there are more episodes on this visit. I’d love to see the Psychiatrist sit with a “receptive” farmer who would maintain the same expression throughout and after rural doc tells psychiatrist how helpful that was.
The biggest problem with this skit is saying that a filling station in the South (I'm assuming, because that's where most fan boats are) wouldn't have a kitchen. Usually some of the best food you can get in the rural county is at that one gas station down the road apiece.
Also, that possums are venomous. They’re not. They’re also highly tolerant to rabies, and rarely get it. Still wouldn’t want to mess with one, they can be mean, but “venomous possum bite” is not a thing.
Pastor in a rural community and with a first career as a mental health social worker. You have hit that nail on the head so hard it has a concussion. ❤
Great work. From someone who has lived and worked in rural medicine in the midwest my entire career, it's spot on. Very funny, also very poignant. I see mental health and depression as not only taboo among farmers but within the small town community as a whole. Great call out. Also, love the callback to the combined ct and mri.
THANK YOU! for addressing rural mental health issues. Our county Farm Bureau has started a Check Your Engine community education program for our agricultural community and they are training non-traditional folks who come in contact with farmers (feed mill operators, grain salesmen, mail persons) to recognize when something seems wrong or different. And then how to do an intervention to help the farmer/family get help. This is such an important topic for a mostly dismissed part of our country.
I cackled when psychiatry asked if the kids had driver’s licenses. I learned to drive when I was 7 and naturally my grandpa who had a farm was the one who taught me how to do it on his Mule-not the animal, a type of vehicle that looks like a golf cart-so that I could help ferry him around for his chores. He was a functioning alcoholic, so by the time grandma took me to her house to watch me after school he was pretty drunk and needed a chauffeur. He taught my cousin too so that we could take turns driving him
"They also try to manage their own mental health." I'm borrowing this, and can tell it's a staple line I'll be using till I retire (we all have our go-to collections). Once in a while, the message framing will be just enough for that stoic pt that lives for me others...to realize you can't manage your own mental health. When they say thanks, I'll say. Don't thank me. Thank an opthalmologist who shared this to me (in a RU-vid comedy bit , and made me realize I was the farmer all along. Then cue Lean on me -Bill Withers Thank you Dr. G, you are helping our community pay it forward
I appreciate Rural Medicine's combination of no nonsense medical care and unending compassion. I'd love to see him interact with more of the city hospital characters, because the contrast is so stark.
As a Community Health Worker in a rural area in Texas, this is so real. It takes a long time to build up a relationship of trust with this community, but once you do, you find out they are dealing with some heavy stuff.
Thank you so much for this video. The farming community has such resistance to any mental health assistance whatsoever. My dad, a farmer in Northern Iowa, took his own life five months ago. Like you said, it made me laugh but hurt a little bit, too. Thank you again for bringing this issue to light. We appreciate you!
It isn't just the farmers in rural communities. I grew up in a town of 1200 (if you include all the rural plots in city limits) and the stigma extended to the farming families and the town families. Took me until I graduated college to finally get help for my depression and anxiety. Until then, I was essentially told to suck it up and that nothing that ever happened to me was so bad. The stigma needs to disappear so more don't have to live for 22 years without help.
I'm so sorry -- may his memory be for a blessing. The issues are real and pervasive; I see it acutely when I go back home (rural NE) and it's gut-wrenching.
Thank you for this series. Growing up in a small town, I saw a lot of this side of agriculture. After my dad lost the farm, his gf of 15 yrs passed suddenly, and we lost our dad. He couldn't help but follow her. 😔
My grandfather was a farmer in Minnesota and this seems spot on. He happily dealt with his own injuries if possible, even lost the tips to most of his fingers, but in the brief time I got with him I don't think he would have ever been the type to speak about any mental health issues. Something that has unfortunately been passed on to my mother and her siblings.
Living in rural West Texas, this is a real issue, especially since many farmers and agricultural workers are also military vets. Thank you for bringing awareness to this situation!!!! ❤️
My husband comes from a long line of German farmers, and even though his dad went into aerospace rather than agriculture, the attitudes from prior generations get handed down. I've had to get very good at telling him that he needs to go to the doctor NOW before I have to take him to the hospital.
I can still see my mom (5 foot tall and 105lbs) standing nose to nose with my dad (5'10 tall and 200lbs) instructing, not asking, instructing him, that he was going to see the doctor and the damned chores were going to wait. The stand off lasted for about 2 minutes then dad gave in and did as he was told!
Given that the last time I managed to even get in at a psychologist or counselor, they gave me the stellar advice "try to care less about those big things", promised some resources by email, scheduled next appointment 2 months later and then cancelled and ghosted, Texaco sounds nice
I've seen two during very stressful times when I was having trouble coping. The first just scolded my 11 yr old for acting out. Nothing for me. The second offered drugs and said when the stress subsided I would be fine. I'm done.
Texaco Mike's CT is spiral except for the fact that it's not the X ray tube that rotates, it's the table with the patient that rotates... latest technology indeed.
Rural Medicine is one of my favorites, and i like ALL of your characters. Also, nice segue into agricultural mental health; that's serious as a heart attack.
True story, I know of a rural farmer who was exhibiting signs/symptoms of a heart attack. They called 911 and said they would meet the ambulance at the ambulance garage. Our local EMS is volunteer. Waiting for an ambulance Al’s means waiting for the ambulance crew to get from work or home to the ambulance/fire truck garage. Then the trip to the hospital is still a good 30 minutes. Fortunately for that farmer, his daughter in law was home that day. She’s a (now retired) nurse on the CICU of a famous medical clinic
My dad grew up on a farm. He said he learned to drive a stick shift at 12 laying out fenceposts with his dad and uncles. And yes, he basically has to be on death's door before he takes a sick day, even after working in a moderately sized city for 30 years. Edit: Also, this should be "Therapy goes to rural medicine"
As somebody who grew up in an extremely remote location around other rural people, I am so glad you make these videos. They are really my favorite. They show not only the true difficulties of living in remote areas with little access to important human resources, but also highlight the closeness that our communities develop to know each other's families and habits and take care of each other. Thank you!
I grew up on a farm in rural Australia. Very similar experience, with a large dose of alcoholism on top of that. We had a drought from the time I was 3 till about 18, so it weighed on my dad's mind a lot. Thankfully my dad is a clever man and my mum's income could keep us afloat, but they fought all the time. I also lost a classmate when I was maybe 8. He and his younger sister were driving a four wheel motorbike around the paddock, lost control, and went into an irrigation channel. His sister made it out, but he didn't. I remember the funeral procession going past the school. RIP Zac.
Loved this on many levels. Lived in a rural area and even as a “retired “ EMS, I found myself at so many scenes being the only help for at least 40 mins at times. My kids knew to stay in the car unless called upon to help. Spot on Dr G. Can’t tell you how many suicide attempts or completions I’ve seen.
I'm in training to be an EMT right now, and this is very interesting. How did you keep finding yourself on scenes after retiring? Did their families know to call you personally?
@@absolutemattlad2701 I can answer as someone who did this work professionally and still volunteers. (I like the speed of my whee-woo wagon and the thrill of getting a band aide box up the mountains). If you say you are someone medical, even if it is only as a nursing assistant the lowest level of care and knowledge, people will come to you. Most of the time, they know enough first aide to stop major bleeds and in some cases pack wounds or put on an effective tourniquet. Several that work with large animals know about dosage calculations with mental arithmetic faster than most nurses. Finally, more complete basic military service which includes EMT/Paramedic basics, or home grown doctors/nurses that went the military route to pay for their schooling while really being trained to work. Unlike most "Job Corps" and "Peace Corps" promotional skit claims, the U.S armed forces will pay for all of your schooling as long as you have the aptitude for it (i.e good grades out of H.S and other interpersonal skills). This is an aside but the award amount and skills training in the previous programs amounts to volunteering with a measly pension, on top of NO real value skill training as the program is too short, and no health benefits, on top of only about $7000 dollars total for 2 years of 80+ hour weeks. By contrast as long as you aren't infantry, the military has it's bureaucratic shiftiness, but the programs provide a much better safety net both short and long term than Peace Corps service or Job Corps. The only problem for most people is a lack of physical, mental, or ideologically aligned potential for service in a branch. This is a bad thing, in that poor and underprivileged (but also physically fit) people tend to fit into the box while any other more liberal counterpart will have the opportunity to skip military service altogether, while also, denigrating anyone who was or is in the position to have no other options in a rural community to get up or out of where they currently are. State funding (by liberal populations) rarely reaches the number of people it should combined with systemic areas of underdevelopment and underfunding by conservative denizens to support better educational and agricultural practices in the region. Here both sides are to blame, the more bureaucracy you have the less things get accomplished with the money you give, there be the liberals. On the other hand, money that is not gathered never gets reinvested, here be the conservatives. Therefore, the net result is NO funding coming from the local community to shore up for bad times OR prevent older industries from dying out completely even though they are essential. Few city folks want to really understand the strain or stresses of a bad farming year and why the pesticides of today are essential to keeping the farm of tomorrow at least how the smaller farmers see it. The massive plantations that output most of our food with foreign agricultural workers have fewer rights and the local farmers stopped having any support via the government and local production subsidies to encourage anything but cash crops. Ironically, corporate farms receive the majority of the benefits ( by form of subsidy) which most adversely impacts the smaller more well rounded farming communities that use restorative agriculture and other techniques on a less "profitable" direct scale but that more sustainably sources the majority of our food via cost of transit and risk of waste over vast distances. Hiring people to work these jobs at a "living" wage is unsustainable as it drives up cost across the entire line, thus people either have a half dozen kids, mechanize all the farming, OR they simply engage in unfair labor practices. Finally, farming has a massive disconnect between them and local universities and yet it is one of the most pressing questions of our time, that is nature and food conservation combined with feeding an aging and shrinking population in concern to global warming. Schooling is untenable under a European "free" model as what we observe is that it further entrenches rather than allows class divisions to remain the way they are. I.E those with the most educated parents are encouraged to seek Uni jobs while the least get brought up on the knee of a revulsion for the same, especially considering the sheer lack of common sense seen by people who have beat out the city kid competition in some forms of practical learning for a long time. I'm not saying that this divide is insurmountable or that the stereotypes/economic limitations are fair, only that rarely do most kids either city or otherwise, stick around the farm when better opportunities with less stress or physical wear and tear (as some people really can't handle the farming work ethos) present themselves. To get back on track, obviously the biomechanical and scientific background is lacking but they just come up and ask. Other times, they know you are closer than the big city corporate size hospital and GP clinic that can't/doesn't stay in the community thanks to corporate greed/economic and political factors that business friendly policies tend to destroy. They ask because you are 40+ minutes closer than the nearest band aid box volunteer. The community doc and health nurse combo have largely gone the way of the dodo unless the local community decides to privately fund the doctor, birth center, general hospital, and surgical suite. I am not kidding when I say this. Local Amish communities largely use nurse midwives or lay midwives because the exorbitant cost and distance to medical care means it's better if they pay someone and build something where the medical professionals accept cash payment and they stay within the area because they get showered with gifts, support, or other chores/work repayment. Bargaining for cash price drugs or Chemo treatment and transport is an example of just one form of medical care that rural folks circumvent most of the insurance companies for. If they know, for example, that the local Amish community says they will pay for someone's treatment in full, the pharmacy companies will negotiate the lowest contract price for the duration of their care/medications. Otherwise, charities started by the Amish or Mennonites can and do cover the entire cost of care including home/palliative nursing. Fatalism runs strong in farmers of all types, and so getting treatment or regular screenings is seen as useless when there is always more work and no one else to do it. There are no days off or insurance plans that come with farmer's aides when the business can't run for a few months. In these times the local community or wife will basically be running the medical care, farm, children's activities, and three thousand pounds of machinery and business math it takes to keep the place going.
Can confirm, my dad is a rural veterinarian who has been asked more than once to take an x-ray to rule out a fracture from a farmer who doesn't want to go to the hospital if he doesn't really have to.
As someone who lives less than a mile away from nothing but fields and farmhouses for HOURS OF DRIVING (like we live on the very edge of the city limits basically and then after that it’s just hills and fields and the occasional dollar general if you drive away from the city), there isn’t a mental health place anywhere NEAR this place, like if you want to improve your mental health here, most of it’s gonna be online or it’s gonna be one long drive. It’s so lovely to see people spreading the word about the lack of mental health assistance in rural areas, and also discussing the stigma around it (which is what so many people around here have; many believe mental health doesn’t exist or matter at all which is really sad) Keep up the incredible content!!
Thank you so much for bringing this up!!!! As someone who is a second generation from farmers/foundry workers etc. I have the hard physical labor gene and the joy of working with my hands running in my blood, while having an Autistic brain with a side of ADHD, sleep dysomnia, and severe depression and anxiety. I grew up with having high expectations for myself based on prior family history and family pride, while also having to deal with the frustrations of feeling like I’m not living up to the standard I set for myself. *Im one of the lucky ones; while my family wants me to work hard and push myself, they also understand the need to slow down and take a break.* But again, thank you for bringing this up because we all know the joke of the “stubborn Farmer won’t go to the hospital because it’s just a broken bone, or just a small infection (which ends up almost needing to be amputated)”, but this is also a serious issue that needs to be discussed more ❤❤❤
@Red_ Guy Iowa farmer builds a baseball diamond in his corn field. Ghosts 👻 of dead great players appeared, and the famous line is, "If you build it, they will come"
As someone who grew up in a small farming community and watched a lot of good, proud people, including family, swallow their problems and suffer for it, I’m really glad you’re trying to raise awareness about it, Doctor.
Hey, as a farmer I really appreciate this. It gets really hard sometimes, and like you said there are a LOT of us that can’t admit we need help, be that for broken ribs or depression.
I imagine Texaco Mike to be a cousin of Jonathan, very quiet, empathetic listener, but smaller smile and will respond in as few words as possible. I hope we get to meet him one day.
Apparently, the possums in Rural Doc's area are. At least, that's what he told the med student. The part I loved about it is that Psychiatry didn't even bat an eye, because he's never been to the country before!
I grew up in a rural community in the South, mental health was never ever ever talked about. It's a critical issue that gets almost no attention; thank you for raising awareness!
this is actually a very relatable clip to me, as an environmental scientist in the global south, whenever i have to explain to managers from developed countries, just how many things one single expert has to deliver outside the developed world, and who we’d accept to train to some level of competence, simply because there’s nobody else and we can’t just pick and choose who we get to do work or pick a niche and decide not to do anything else, or take our bloody sweet time on details that don’t deliver results to our clients who themselves have too few resources and have to be persuaded to accept advice rather than try to make do without.
As someone who grew up in a small farm/factory town in the midwest, I really appreciate all the videos with Rural Medicine. I'm living in California now, and I've actually shown these to some of my actual providers so that they 'get it'
Jonathan would completely revolutionise the rural medicine field. They'd not know what to do with themselves when so much was done so quickly. They'd have time to chart and everything.
I grew up in a rural community and this is accurate to my experience. I didn't know anyone that went to therapy until I moved away for college. But there were multiple suicides in the small community. People aren't just embarrassed to seek professional help but embarrassed to even discuss mental health issues with friends or family. Though on a less serious and bleak note, I won't stand for any denigration of opossums. They might look goofy but they are great creatures and are rarely aggressive.
I'm going back to school for counseling and found out just how bad the need for mental health practitioners in rural areas really is. Glad you're talking about it!
100% I live in a farming community, and no matter what the issue is, generally, the attitude is "rub some dirt on it and walk it off." We could really use better mental health care out here.
Hey, Doc! Another banger! You know what would be fun to see? Jon bro helping out Bill Bro. Bill deserves to know how things go when they're good. Poor Bill. :(
Thank you so much for this skit. My father was a surgeon who moved from the suburbs to a rural practice. This skit sings true. Also the interaction between Rural Medicine and Psychiatry was just as I imagined. Wonderful skit.
Thank you so much for discussing mental health in rural communities. It is such a big issue-and I worry it's exacerbated by the stigma not just within the community itself, but from outside the community. Pop culture frequently mocks and disrespects rural America... But those poor people (literally) already deal with enough. Rural poverty is something unlike most have ever seen. It's heartbreaking. Of course that is a major stressor leading to mental health problems. Anyway, these rural medicine skits are my bread and butter. Please keep them coming. :)
Oh my gosh, this is very true. I grew up on a hobby farm and worked in summers baling hay, my brother worked on a peach farm, farmers don’t take time off from work. I fell off my horse and hurt my back really badly, got my foot crushed and my brother fell into a pallet of peaches and we didn’t miss work. Dad and Mom were the same. I think it’s the country way. Mental health was never discussed. Ever. Mike’s Texaco wasn’t too far off😅
Ahh, sounds like home 😂😂😂😂 my dad and stepdad both removed their own teeth using pocket knives, stitched or glued giant cuts closed, cut out what looked like tumors, and absolutely never went to hospitals unless they were unconscious and we were able to call an ambulance
They gotta stop with the tumor ones! If a spot really is cancer and it gets in your bloodstream, it's basically a death sentence. That's why they freeze spots before cutting em
Your Rural Doctor is one of the most well-adjusted person I've seen, ever. He even has the capacity to outline objectively what the issue is with farming communities without breaking down while still having some empathy. And Texaco Mike. Damn. He's a dream community partner to have. Can do it all
From someone who lives in a very small farming rural town in the middle of Oklahoma, thank you! There are kids driving golf carts and their dad's pick ups to school every day haha. But seriously, love the respect you give to mental health awareness in small rural communities like mine. Love your channel!
Having grown up in a community where all the kids drove themselves to driver's ed classes (they were held in the evening), that "drive your tractor to school day" is spot on. The very first thing I learned to drive was a Fordson Major diesel tractor, because I was too small to throw a standard bale of hay. I was six.
Wow. Expected to laugh, and I did. But, wow does this hit hard. My dad passed away because he didn't go to the doctor soon enough. "It's just pneumonia," it was cancer. Left it too late, because he didn't want help, and he suffered from a lot of anxiety and other stuff that I can only guess based off of odd reactions he had, because he didn't talk about anything.
