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Mental health concerns grow as farmer suicides increase

Tough economic times have more U.S. farmers reaching out for help. 

Karen Endress with the Wisconsin Farm Center tells Brownfield more farmers are reaching out for mental health assistance. She says, “We’re busier than ever.”

Endres says she was recently at a meeting with her counterparts from other states, and they are also dealing with more farmer stress and deaths. “A woman from Missouri was commenting they had three row crop farmers who had died by suicide, and there was another one from Rochester, Minnesota, so August was an extremely heavy month.” And, Endress says a 14-year-old farmer from Wisconsin also committed suicide in August.

Endres says farmers feeling the stress should reach out to get help. “We’ll help you connect to a provider that understands agriculture and understands the different things in our culture that make us farmers.”

Resources for many states can be found online at farmstress.org or by calling 888-901-2558.  The Wisconsin Farm Center hotline is 800-942-2474.

Endress spoke to Brownfield during World Dairy Expo in Madison, Wisconsin Tuesday.