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- By Dan Sullivan

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.

Youths age 15 to 19 are 74% more likely to commit suicide than their urban peers, according to the Rural Health Information Hub.

The new program focuses on developing and normalizing peer-to-peer communication about mental health.

Young people are often more comfortable talking with each other about personal struggles than with an adult, said Chuck Strand, the executive director of Rural Minds.

The biggest step is often having the courage and sensitivity to ask someone if they are thinking of harming themselves, Strand said.

“Those are tough conversations to have, and one of the printable program pieces that we have already in that resilience program is how to have that conversation,” he said.

National Grange and other partners are supporting the Rural Youth Mental Wellness program.

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Matt Espenshade, the president of Pennsylvania State Grange, said rural life can come with burdens such as preserving a generational farm.

“Nobody in my position wants to be the final generation,” said Espenshade, a seventh-generation dairy farmer in Lancaster County.

Social media presents its own challenges.

Espenshade said rural youths could get discouraged by comparing their real lives, full of mundane struggles, with the selective highlight reels posted by urban kids.

“It’s a real challenge separating what is real from just glorified fantasy,” he said.

Espenshade first encountered Rural Minds two years ago, when the group’s founder, Jeff Winton, spoke at the National Grange Convention. Last year, Strand spoke to the Pennsylvania State Grange.

Over the past few years, Espenshade said, he has noticed that rural people have begun to talk more freely about mental illness.

Strand thinks the historical reluctance is cultural.

“A lot of people in rural communities grow up with this mindset of celebrating being able to do things themselves, which is often necessary,” he said. “You’ve got to learn to be independent and self-reliant.”

But people can’t always sort out mental health challenges on their own, and care can be hard to access in rural areas, he said.

Advisory committee members on the new peer-to-peer project include NY FarmNet and Cornell University, as well as teens and young adults from FFA, 4-H and the National Grange.

Rural Minds’ services are available at ruralminds.org and by calling 800-226-8113.

If you or someone you know is having thoughts of suicide or is in emotional distress, dial 988 for 24/7 support. If it is a life-threatening emergency, call 911 or go to the nearest emergency room.

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