Researchers from Mercer University recently came out with some alarming figures about farming and its correlation to mental health.
According to Georgia Farm Bureau, The study showed that 29 percent of farmer workers, owners and managers had thought of suicide in the past year. Among first-generation farmers, 60 percent said they had suicidal thoughts in the past year.
The survey, conducted from Jan. 1 to April 30, drew 1,651 responses. All but two of Georgia’s 159 counties had at least one person respond.
The study quantifies what many in agriculture have long known – farming, with so many factors outside the farmer’s control, comes with extraordinary stress. The survey showed 96 percent of farmers are either moderately or highly stressed. In addition, 40 percent of farmers felt lonely at least once in the last month, 49 percent felt sad or depressed and 39 percent felt hopeless.
Montgomery said the group wanted to generate data to help explain the alarming rate of farmer suicides noted in 2018 by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), which counted 50.7 suicides per 100,000 farmers, more than triple the rate (14.9 per 100,000) measured in all industries.
“Long-term exposure to stress negatively impacts physical and mental health, and in turn this leads to development of stress-related disease and disorders,” Dr. Anne Montgomery said. “So the bulk of our study was to develop an inventory of stressors and coping mechanisms among farmers. We were hoping to develop some tailored interventions to improve the mental well-being of farmers and we will be working on that.”
Survey participants were presented a wide array of stressors and asked to identify which ones affected them. The two most common were home/work life balance and weather. For each of those, 61 percent said they were moderately worried, worried a lot or extremely worried. Following those stressors were COVID-19 impact on income (59 percent), saving for retirement (59 percent) and unexpected financial burdens (59 percent).
These are not problems exclusive to farmers, but we as a community must find a way of helping our local farmers cope and continue. These folks are not only a vital part of our economy and community, but they are our friends and neighbors.
If you can do anything to support someone in the farming industry and make their lives just a little easier, please do. We all face mental health challenges at times, and leaning on one another is the best way to overcome them.