New efforts to help farmers at risk of suicide

cCunderstanding farming, and concerns about the future of their farm were found to be among the top three stressors for farmers. 

Actions targeting farmers at risk of suicide are to get under way in the coming weeks, amid concerns that stress in the agricultural community is being increased by blame against the sector around climate change.

The actions are the next step after a report published last October highlighted that 23.4% of farmers are at risk of suicide, while more than half experience moderate to extremely severe depression. 

The report was funded by the Health Service Executive National Office for Suicide Prevention, and carried out by Dr Tomás Russell, assistant professor in agricultural extension and innovation, and Alison Stapleton at the University College Dublin (UCD) School of Agriculture and Food Science.

It was presented at an event in Brussels last week hosted by MEP Maria Walsh, focussing on mental health and suicide prevention within the farming community.

The report found that climate change policies, outsiders not understanding farming, and concerns about the future of their farm were among the top three stressors. It pointed out that participants in the study mentioned feeling scapegoated for climate change and felt they were being misrepresented in the media.

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Dr Russell told the Irish Examiner that interventions will get under way in the coming weeks to help farmers. The first phase will involve the development of protocols for clinical psychologists working with farmers at risk of suicide.

Another phase of the interventions will involve psychologists and agricultural advisers attending discussion groups with farmers to test what works well with farmers, according to Mr Russell.

He added: “The end result of that hopefully will be the development of a website with resources where farmers can log in.

The aim is to get farmers better quicker and targeted quicker.

"It is important that we get to that 23.4% of farmers that are at risk. The overall aim of that part is that there would be clinical trained psychologists in rural mental health teams.” 

Maria Walsh said that mental health difficulties have been the “silent pandemic” in the farming community for too long.

“Farm safety is a major issue in rural Ireland," she said. "It is one that we hear about in the media and through safety campaigns, and rightly so. The difficulty, however, is that mental health is just as much of a problem in our farming community today, and sadly, we are still not talking about it. 

We need to break down the barriers and address the taboo. 

"Our farming community, particularly in rural Ireland, is finding it really tough and we are continuing to ignore the difficulties.” 

In the Dáil last week, Fianna Fáil TD Aindrias Moynihan of Cork North West echoed concerns that farmers feel scapegoated regarding climate change. 

“Farmers feel very much under siege from climate activists, unfortunately," he said. "It is not about a blame game. 

"We need to know that everybody is in it together, and farmers are very much to the forefront on that.”

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