A clinical social worker discovers new purpose bridging farmer mental health and food systems
After 30 years as a clinical social worker, Vanessa Whalen could have easily continued her private practice. Instead, she chose something entirely different: trading her therapy office for farm fields as a graduate student in the urban food systems program at Kansas State University Olathe.
"I was searching for what the next phase was," Whalen said. "I wanted to leave while I still loved my work."
In 2021, she closed her practice and began exploring what came next. That exploration led her to master gardener training through K-State Research and Extension, where she discovered something unexpected.
"I saw how that program was impacting the community in ways I hadn't anticipated," she said. "The social aspect, the empowerment, the education, the nutrition. I could see how it all ties together."
Finding her place in food systems
For Whalen, the urban food systems program felt like a natural extension of her previous work in policy, people and relationships. The comprehensive nature of the program appealed to her from horticulture fundamentals to the complex social systems that surround food production.
The transition back to graduate school after decades brought new learning opportunities. Online learning, digital resources and a cohort of much younger peers opened her eyes to different perspectives and approaches.
"Since there's such a gap between my first graduate degree and this one, I find the difference is vast," Whalen said. "But I've found tremendous value in my diverse peer group, especially the international students who bring firsthand experience from places I may never visit."
Bringing social work to the field
Whalen's unique background led her to a grant-funded research project that addresses a critical gap between what mental health professionals think they know about farmer struggles and what farmers experience.
"The suicide rate in farmers is much higher than the general population," she said. "Farmers do so much for us, but it can be very isolating. They tend to be stoic and self-reliant, so they don't ask for help."
Her approach is distinctly rooted in social work methodology: meeting people where they are. She travels to farms across the region, working alongside growers and talking with them about their lives.
"It's all about going to them rather than them coming to me," she said. "I found that model works really well with farmers because they will share so much and the information you get this way is so rich."
The goal is to develop programming and resources for mental health professionals that truly address farmers' needs not what outsiders assume those needs to be.
Understanding the unseen
Through her research, Whalen has uncovered common themes among growers that often go unrecognized. One of the most significant is feeling undervalued and misunderstood.
"A trend I'm starting to see already is the feeling of being behind the scenes and truly not feeling seen by their communities," she said. "Most growers would love for their communities to understand that for you to get your tomato at the farmers market in August, things had to happen correctly in January."
This is particularly seen among smaller-scale growers who are often viewed as hobbyists rather than serious agricultural professionals.
When visiting farms, she arrives ready to work, whether that means harvesting weeds or sitting on the ground with growers.
"Show up ready to work and listen to them," she said. "When you're ready to try to understand what their world is like, it makes all the difference."
Whalen's journey embodies K-State's opportunity agenda in action. By addressing mental health, food security and community wellbeing simultaneously, her work exemplifies how the university is tackling multiple grand societal challenges in interconnected ways.
Advice for the journey
As someone who made a dramatic career shift later in life, Whalen offers practical wisdom for others considering similar transitions.
"It's always good to have a beginner's mind in whatever you do," she said. "There's always more to learn."
When she entered the program, Whalen wasn't entirely sure where it would lead, she just knew it sounded interesting. Now, with research underway, she sees advocacy work and programming development as a possibility for her future.
For Whalen, this unexpected path represents more than just a career change. It's about recognizing that caring for people's mental health doesn't always happen within office walls. Sometimes it happens in the soil, under open skies, with dirty hands and open hearts.
