COLUMBUS, Ohio — In this week's edition of the Ag Report, Spectrum News 1 anchor Chuck Ringwalt and agriculture expert Andy Vance discuss the suicide rate among farmers as well as where you can turn if you are in crisis.
Ringwalt: “Suicide can be difficult to talk about, and so can asking for help. The National Alliance on Mental Health says feelings of loneliness, anxiety and depression can increase during the holiday season and in worst-case scenarios, these factors can attribute to attempts of suicide, so we're going to discuss farmers and their mental health. Spectrum News 1 agriculture expert, Andy Vance, joins me now to discuss. So, Andy, what's the rate of farmers who commit suicide and how does that compare to the general population?”
Vance: “Yeah. The sad truth, Chuck, is that among farmers and people in agriculture among all industries, farmers are among the most likely to die from suicide. According to one study from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention [from] a few years ago, farmers are about one and a half times more likely to die from suicide than the general population. That same study found that farmer suicides grew 40% over the previous 20 years, so basically this century, up 40%. There was another study out the following year. This would be about 2017. Researchers at the University of Iowa found that farmers and those in agricultural occupations had the highest suicide rate of all occupations over the period from 1992 to 2010. They found it as high as t3.5%, three and a half times, rather than the general population so someone involved in the industry of agriculture [is] somewhere from twice to maybe three and a half times as likely to die from suicide than members of the general population. That, by the way, mirrors what we see around the world. In Australia, the crisis is such that a farmer-suicide occurs once every four days. In the U.K., it's about one farmer-suicide per week. And in India, this is where the crisis has been the biggest. It's seven and a half percent of all suicide deaths in India. About 28 people in the agriculture industry every day die from suicide. It's a really sad, tragic, and unfortunately widespread problem that we're grappling with as an industry.”
Ringwalt: “So we know it's a problem. And like you just said, we know it's widespread. Where can farmers turn for help?”
Vance: “Well, the good news is that because there's been more attention paid to this, more people like you and I talking about it in the news media. And actually, I think social media for once maybe is playing a positive role in people in the industry actually talking about this and acknowledging that it's an issue. You’re starting to see more resources available. For example, Ohio State University Extension is working on a mental health institute with a U.S. Department of Agriculture grant of about $500,000. The Ohio Department of Agriculture launched a campaign called Farm Stress: We’ve Got Your Back, where at the Ohio Department of Agriculture's website you can go and find some very specific resources on dealing with a lot of the challenges that maybe lead to some of the problems that we're talking about; things like increasing farmer debt, things like falling commodity prices, things like weather and of course, not just figuring out how to deal with those specific prices, but dealing with all of the feelings: the depression, the stress, the anxiety that fuel this, this farmer-suicide crisis.”
Ringwalt: “And then for the general population, even if you don't know a farmer, is there anything that you can do to help?”
Vance: “Yeah. I think that's the biggest thing; is that we all maybe need to do a better job regardless of occupation, of understanding the signs and the issues and the challenges. I think just being a more empathetic society and understand that everybody has problems and, you know, maybe don't be such a hateful, miserable people in the social media space. Those are all things and really understanding that this is a real phenomenon and that maybe our more isolated, online lifestyle isn't super great for mental health. I think we've seen some positive strides in that in regard to people understanding that taking care of their mental health is important and we need to continue to make progress in that area.”
Ringwalt: “Got it. Andy Vance, as always, thank you.”
If you are in crisis, the National Suicide Prevention Hotline is 1-800-273-8255.