Farmers at twice the risk of suicide than non-farming community

Survey of 457 farmers found 22.8% were considered 'at risk of suicide'.

More than a fifth of farmers are considered at risk of dying by suicide and almost all know someone who has taken their own lives, experts have warned.

Separate analysis also found twice as many male farmers, aged over 65, died by probable suicide than men of the same age who were not in farming.

An unpublished survey of 457 farmers found 22.8% were considered "at risk of suicide", while of the 82% who knew someone who had taken their own lives, 13.8% were family members, spouses or partners, and 41.6% were friends.

The survey was run by University College Dublin, led by Mark Creegan and other members of the UCD Agri Mental Health Group.

Dr Alison Stapleton, who was a part of the research, said farmers frequently used the phrase “land on the mind”.

'Farmers feel they are not represented properly in the media, and a word they would use again and again is “scapegoated”. They feel scapegoated for climate change by the media.'

“One of the farmers had said ‘Land gets in the lad’s mind like, on his own all day and thinking about it, thinking about it, thinking about it he’s just going to snap at some stage. Whether it's the snap on his own or kill someone else and kill himself afterwards’,” she said.

Comparing this with a similar survey the team carried out during the pandemic in 2022, Dr Stapleton said: “We see no significant difference in the percentage of farmers considered at risk for suicide."

Weather biggest cause of stress

Unusual weather this year was the biggest cause of stress farmers reported, followed by Government policies designed to reduce climate change.

“Farmers feel they are not represented properly in the media, and a word they would use again and again is “scapegoated”. They feel scapegoated for climate change by the media,” she said.

It was clear farmers who see themselves as caretakers of the land now feel disenfranchised by climate policies, she said.

The other main stresses were market prices for crops or livestock, the future of the farm, seasonal variations in workload and outsiders not understanding the nature of farming.

The farmers included 339 men and 118 women aged between 18 and 77. Almost a third farmed between 50 and 100 hectares, with dairy and beef farming the most common work.

In June, the UCD Agri Mental Health Group, including Professor Louise McHugh and Dr Tomás Russell, separately published a pre-print paper with two researchers at the National Office for Suicide Prevention (NOSP).

“We found that twice as many male farmers and agricultural workers over 65 years of age died by probable suicide than men of the same age who were neither farmers nor agricultural workers,” Dr Stapleton said.

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“We were working with NOSP colleagues and looking at probable suicide. So regardless of a coroner’s verdict, if the coroner’s report has an indication of suicide, that death was classed as a probable suicide,” she said.

“So I am quite confident in the accuracy of the figures we are reporting on. We go deeper than just looking at coroners' verdicts alone.”

Dr Stapleton suggested their findings indicate farmers should be more included in policy decision-making, especially around sustainability.

“Our research suggests that farmers may benefit from learning psychological skills to manage the daily demands of farming. We are exploring this further with the support of our funders, the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine and FBD Trust,” she also said.

The Irish Farmers Association offers mental health supports: ifa.ie/mental-health/