Over 50 farmers filled the Elks Hall on Wednesday to be told they can take control of their situation, in spite of the global farming situation.

The Farm Family Forum has been held in various locations in southern Saskatchewan to give farmers information about services available to them to help.

"Sometimes when people face a financial crisis, they tend to feel they are the only ones going through it," said Saskatchewan Agriculture and Food extension agrologist Elaine Moats. "We need to reassure farmers that they can't control some of the things that happen to them."

Farmers were told people have been leaving the farming industry consistently for 60 years. They were also told the Statistics Canada data tracking farm incomes prove they are making less money than they were making 30 years ago.

Farm business consultant John Spencer told the assembled farmers based on this data they could stay in farming, if they planned carefully and knew what they wanted to accomplish.

"We can all leave farming or we can adapt," Spencer told the audience. "The terms by which you stay on the farm must be set by you."

Spencer told farmers of how some people dealt with the crisis by doing nothing and waiting for things to improve. He referred to this as the bunker mentality, and said this method does not work.

"The way to deal with the economic crisis is to do strategic thinking," Spencer said. "You have to set goals. Find out what has to be changed then find the help you need to make those changes happen."

Spencer spoke of setting core values to your business plan, where your fundamental principles and statement of vision are set before business goals are set.

"If you focus on your core governing values you will most likely succeed," said Spencer. "Once you have the governing values, take the necessary risks to make your plan a success."

There are qualifications farmers must meet in order to qualify for farm business consulting advice. A $100 fee applies and farmers must be consistently be losing money, or have their net income decrease.

"All farmers now qualify for this assistance," said Spencer.

Other speakers at the forum spoke on social support services available to help farmers cope with their situation.

Stress counsellor Derrell Rodine spoke about the stresses of dealing with a crisis situation. To Rodine, the first issue you must deal with is discovering what stress is.

"A catastrophic event to one person may be a minor event to someone else," said Rodine. "All change creates stress of some variety."

Acute stress which is continuous leads to changes in the body's organs and nervous system. If left untreated, stress can lead to changes in the body which are not visible to the person affected.

"Some of the things you may see are an increased use of cigarettes, alcohol and tranquilizers," said Rodine.

Some of the ways people can deal with stress of this type are to make time for recreation, work off anger, take one thing at a time, talk things over or call on the resources of a church.

If farmers want to talk about their problems, the Farm Stress Line is a phone number farmers can call to find out where government support services can be found.

Farm Stress Unit manager Ken Imhoff said the people who answer the phone are either farmers or have been involved in the farm industry at some point.

"We offer peer counseling and informational support," said Imhoff. "We can also refer farmers to services which may be able to help them through their situation."

The counsellors are trained to give advice in debt resolution, suicide intervention, personal and family issues and general short-term counselling. Last year, the line took 1,800 calls, a 30 per cent increase from the 1992.

"This was helpful as it makes you look at things more closely," said John Van Staveren, a Creelman area farmer. "The biggest thing is to realize it's not our own fault. Now we have to step back and learn how to deal with it."