The amount of calls from farmers to suicide prevention charity Console’s Farm and Rural Stress Helpline have increased by more than 300% over the past six months.

THE number of calls to the Farm and Rural Stress Helpline in Cork and Kerry has doubled in the first six months of this year compared to last year, according to experts.

There has been a marked rise in the number of calls to the Farm and Rural Stress Helpline because of the recession.

A TOTAL of 500 calls were made between January and November last year to a Health Service Executive helpline targeted specifically at farmers and people who live in rural areas of Cork and Kerry.

Men accounted for more than half the people who contacted a special loneliness helpline in Cork and Kerry last year.